Shawn Minihan, a Johnson County attorney and Navy veteran, will speak at Memorial Day services Monday. Ceremonies will start at 11 a.m. at Highland Cemetery, north end of Jefferson Avenue.
Minihan told the Register an emphasis of his presentation will be the death of a great uncle, James Monroe, in France during World War II, a month after the Normandy Invasion.
Also, Kandall Ashford, a World War II Navy veteran who died Feb. 19, will be recognized for having played 52 years with the Iola City Band, which performs each year for the Memorial Day observance.
Minihan will be a familiar face to many, having grown up in Iola. He was graduated from Iola High School in 1990. Four members of the class, Minihan, Robert Johnson II, who has offices here, Derek Shirk and Rusty Hazlewood, went on to earn law degrees.
Soon after high school, Minihan joined the Navy and served on the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Ranger, while it was deployed for Desert Storm and Desert Shield. In 1993 the Ranger steamed to the coast of Somalia to provide support and other logistics for Marine and Navy forces during operations Southern Watch and Restore Hope.
Among his duties on the carrier were firefighting and flight deck tasks.
With his discharge, Minihan returned to Iola and enrolled at Allen County Community College, a decision that had long term career implications.
“I really liked a course in business law and my uncle said I should be an attorney,” Minihan said. He took the advice to heart. Minihan earned a bachelor’s degree in political science at Kansas State University, then enrolled in the University of Kansas School of Law.
In 2000, with his law degree in hand, Minihan joined the state appellate defense team in Topeka, where he remained until taking a position with the Johnson County district attorney’s office in 2012. He is on the DA’s appeals unit, doing research and preparing rebuttals for cases being appealed by those having been convicted.
Two cases in which he is involved focus on efforts for legal relief by John Montgomery, who was sentenced to death for killing women and leaving their bodies in barrels, and Glenn MIller, who gunned down several people at a Jewish center in Kansas City.
All of his cases involve felonies and capital murders.
Minihan and wife Laura, an attorney for the U.S. Department of Education, have three sons, Nicholas, 18 and a recent graduate of Belton, Mo., High School, bound for college this fall; Jacob, 16, who will be a junior; and Miles, 21 months.
His parent, John and Dottie Minihan, live in Las Vegas, and his sisters, MIchelle and Keri, are in San Antonio, Texas.
DURING the ceremonies, local veterans interred in the military area of Highland Cemetery, as well as those still living, will be recognized for their contributions by several veterans organizations.
The Iola American Legion, led by Commander Robby Nelson, is in charge of the event.
