Bill Shirley, who served for 22 years in the Army before embarking on another 22-year career in education and then serving another 12 years as either mayor or Iola city commissioner, will provide the keynote address Monday at Iola’s Memorial Day ceremony.
Shirley will speak at 11 a.m. at Highland Cemetery, weather permitting.
Other staples of past Memorial Day events, including the laying of wreaths at the veterans monument, the national anthem from the Iola Municipal Band, and a 21-gun salute, will return as well.
The plans may change due to the weather, however.
With forecasters calling for a 70% chance of rain Monday, organizers will determine, likely Sunday evening or early Monday morning, whether to move the ceremony to the John Silas Bass Memorial Building at 505 N. Buckeye St.
SHIRLEY, 87, is no stranger to giving such addresses to honor veterans.
Monday’s will be his ninth.
Shirley said his speech will focus on the sacrifices from those who have served, as well as the efforts veterans continue to make after their service has concluded.
He recounted hosting a group of World War II veterans for a history class one day, and each began with a similar comment.
“Everyone would say, ‘I’m no hero,’” Shirley recalled. “They were always so modest.”
He’ll speak about three in particular.
William B. Stacy, who died in 1921, was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor 72 years after his death for diving into the ocean to save two wounded men who had fallen overboard from the U.S.S. Rhode Island in 1966, when the ship was refueling off the coast of Haiti.
Stacy was slated to receive a Medal of Honor, but apparently was unaware he needed to apply to receive one first.
The oversight was discovered in 1993, 127 years after the incident.
Stacy never lived in Iola, instead residing primarily in Colorado, but would stay for extended periods with Iola relatives, who chose to have him buried at Highland Cemetery after he died in a traffic accident in Washington, D.C.
Shirley’s address will include veterans he counted as friends, like Bob Lane, who served in World War II in the Army’s 837th Aviation Engineers Battalion, a segregated unit.
Shirley also will speak about Charles Turley, who served in the Marines during World War II, earning two purple hearts.
Likewise, Shirley hopes to spotlight the efforts and sacrifices others had to make, particularly wives and children of servicemen.
