Sean C. Morgan
Dale Jenkins and Stanley Grey corrected a situation at Finley Cemetery Friday afternoon, May 4, by installing a flagpole to honor the veterans buried in the historical graveyard.
Jenkins is local American Legion and AmVets commander. Grey is a member of the Military Order of the Cooties and adjutant with the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
Each Memorial Day, local veterans plant flags at the graves of veterans in each of the area cemeteries. Finley is among them, with three veterans’ graves. But each cemetery also has a large flagpole – with the exception of Finley until Friday.
For Memorial Day, the veterans conduct memorial services at Pioneer Cemetery in Brownsville, Crawfordsville Cemetery and
Gilliland Cemetery.
Last year, Jenkins said, the service was at the Crawfordsville ceremony, and he said he talked to a Cemetery District official. He got the go-ahead this year.
“I brought it up at a (American Legion) district meeting,” Jenkins said. “The district commander raised his hand and said, ‘I have one I’ll donate to you.”
The presence of a flagpole is important, Jenkins and Grey said simultaneously, “because there’s veterans here.”
“It doesn’t matter how many, even if there’s only one (veteran),” Jenkins said.
Finley Cemetery is located west of Crawfordsville on Highway 228 near McKercher Park.