The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
By: Shirley Linder, Quill Editor
Over 200 people attended the Veterans Monument Dedication on November 11th in Roseville.
Dignitaries attending included Representative Rich Myers, Senator John Sullivan and Joyce Bean, a representative from Lane Evan's office.
The National Anthem and other patriotic music was provided by the Roseville High School Band.
Roseville Attorney George Hennenfent gave the dedication address and closing ceremony was a 21 Gun Salute and Taps by the Legion Firing Squad.
Legion members of the Lawson Babbitt Post #614 began talking about erecting a Veterans Memorial in the summer of 2001 and by the summer of 2002 the project was in the planning stages.
Members visited other Veteran Memorials, both in and out of the state, took pictures and gathered information to help with the planning.
A fifteen member committee, co-chaired by Ken Diers and Jim Adkisson was formed to put all of the ideas together.
It was finally decided a granite monument would stand in front of rows of bricks, engraved with the name of a veteran, branch of service and the date they served our country.
In November 2002 the first concrete was poured in front of the Lawson Babbitt American Legion Post, located at 175 West Penn Avenue, Roseville. After countless hours of planning, a dream was about to come true.
On May 28, 2003 the main monument stone was erected and in June they began placing the 388 individual memorial bricks in place. More bricks with names will be added as time goes on.
Along with the granite monument and bricks, three flagpoles were placed directly behind the memorial. A United States flag, the State of Illinois flag and a POW flag will fly continuously.
The bricks represent men and women from California to Pennsylvania and from Minnesota to Texas. Wars represented include the Civil War, Spanish/American War, World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Persian Gulf, Panama and Grenada.
Legion members hope that local citizens, school children and visitors from all over the country will benefit from this Memorial. It is dedicated to all the men and women who served their country in times of war and peace. They also hope the generations that follow will remember family and friends who served in the Armed Forces and always remember, All Gave Some ö Some Gave All.