A 'Lasting Honor'

Out of honor for a deceased soldier, placed the tombstone of WWII veteran Eugene Higgins alongside the village of Evergreen Park war memorial, 9701 S Kedzie Ave.

But the tombstone, recently given to the legion by another veteran, will soon need a lift to the Higgins family grave site in Joliet, as Bill Murray, legion post commander, and a committee of 12 legion members plan for a new war memorial in the months leading up to Memorial Day.

The committee, led by senior vice commander Steve Davies, will select from three or four designs for the new memorial.

“We want [the memorial] to have a nice, simple layout that will last a longtime, without being too glossy,” Murray said.

With the as its “biggest supporter,” the war memorial project has gained $30,000 in donations and a handful of free labor to help construct the memorial, Murray said.

“We'll have a designer, an electrician to do the wiring and a gasman – all from the post,” Murray added. “I want the old memorial down by April, and the new one up to honor our veterans on Memorial Day.”

The memorial is a point of pride for 757 members, the third largest in the state, which includes sons of the American Legion and an auxiliary women group.

“We like to help with charities,” Murray said from his office while writing out checks to a children's hospital in Oak Lawn. “We're a pretty strong run group, we give our time.”

Cemented in Evergreen Park in the mid-fifties, the current memorial has over 200 names of soldiers from WWI, WWII, the Korean War and the Vietnam War engraved on bronze plaques and set in brick, a stone easily weathered over time.

An eternal flame, perched atop the memorial, burns brightly through the night and into the next morning. The post never shuts it off.

“I had a dentist across the street tell me he likes to look at the flame from his window, burning on top of the memorial,” Murray added.

The new memorial, made of marble and metal, will include names of soldiers from Desert Storm and the Iraq War, in an effort to honor men and women recently lost in war and still serving.

Older residents who remember servicemen with names on the current memorial wondered if the bronze plaques will be included on the new memorial.

Murray assured residents, who can still place a face to the names on the memorial, “those plaques aren't going anywhere.”

“The memorial is a lasting honor,” Murray noted. “It's there for those that gave there all for our country."

One resident, however, doesn't think the village has done their part in maintaining the memorial.

Mike Galeher, a legion member and village resident for 18 years, thinks the current memorial is in disarray, and that village should share in the cost for a new memorial.

“The sad thing is that this relates to money,” Galaher said. “This is for our brethren. We're not talking about people who got injured. These are people that died.”

“The village should help with the cost,” he added. “Make the memorial nice, don't be cheap.”

Murray said the village has helped at fundraisers and that Mayor James Sexton is a supporter.

Politics aside, if everything runs smoothly in the months ahead, the post will have quite the unveiling Memorial Day.

“We'll ring a bell, have a ceremony and salute members who died the previous year,” Murray said. “The memorial means a lot to the community.”