EDINA VETERANS MEMORIAL A LASTING TRIBUTE EDINA, MINNESOTA 2015 [REVISED 2018] EDINA VETERANS MEMORIAL A LASTING TRIBUTE REMEMBERING THE COMMITMENT AND SACRIFICES OF THOSE WHO HAVE SERVED – AND THE FAMILIES AND COMMUNITY THAT SUPPORTED THEM APPRECIATING THE COMMITMENT AND SACRIFICES OF THOSE WHO ARE SERVING AND THOSE WHO WILL SERVE – AND THE FAMILIES AND COMMUNITY THAT SUPPORT THEM Researched and Written by Marshall Schwartz This document was prepared as part of the Edina, Minnesota Veterans Memorial Project. Copyright © 2017 by the Edina Historical Society. All rights reserved by the Edina Historical Society. PREAMBLE The Edina Veterans Memorial was still a work in progress when “Edina Veterans Memorial – A Companion Reader” was released in 2012. This new account, “Edina Veterans Memorial – A Lasting Tribute”, extends past the celebratory memorial envisioned in 2012, to the lasting memorial that now stands so serenely amidst the trees in Utley Park. EDINA’S LEGACY OF PATRIOTIC SERVICE Patriotic service and community support for men and women in uniform are deeply imbedded into the fabric of Edina’s rich history. Thousands of its citizens have honorably served in the Army, Navy, Marines, Coast Guard, Air Force or wartime Merchant Marine over the years. They did not do so alone. Behind each son or daughter in uniform were a loving family, caring friends, and a grateful community. Attracted by the excellent schools, parks, and other quality-of-life attributes, many other veterans took up residence – and continue to do so – in Edina after having served. Data derived from the most recent (2010) U.S. Census shows nearly one in seven (13.9%) of Edina’s adult men and women residents at that time had served in the military. This is more than a full percentage point higher than the national average. Additionally, a survey of residents conducted in 2012 indicated eight of ten Edina households then included at least one veteran or someone only one step removed from a veteran or individual who was serving on active duty. The legacy of military service that is such a pronounced part of Edina’s heritage took root even before Edina was incorporated as an independent village. It extends back to the Civil War era, when Charles McCabe, James Hawkes, James Bryant, and other pioneering residents of what was then rural western Richfield made the trek to Fort Snelling to patriotically, and courageously, volunteer for military service. After the War, returning Union soldiers from the small milling crossroads community were joined by Michael Maloney, Preston Cooper, Beverly Yancey, and other veterans like them who had lived elsewhere in the antebellum Republic and came to settle in the part of Richfield Township that would become Edina. 1 Native and adopted sons who had served in the Grand Army of the Republic during the Civil War went on to play a prominent role in the founding of Edina. Better than one in four of the 56 Founding Fathers who voted at the Grange Hall December 12, 1888 on the proposal to separate from Richfield and incorporate Edina as an independent village was either himself a Civil War veteran or just one step removed from one. The connecting thread of patriotic service and appreciative citizens that has existed in Edina since, and even before, incorporation was most visible at the time of the Second World War. Every third or fourth house in Edina and Morningside (which were then separate villages) typically had one or more service stars displayed in a window at some point during that historic era. Blue stars were for family members who were serving. Gold stars were for loved ones who had perished while serving. Some homes showed both blue and gold stars. The homes displaying service stars were primarily concentrated in what is today the northeast Quadrant of the long-since reunited Edina. The combined number of occupied dwellings present in suburbanized Morningside and northeast Edina at that time far exceeded those located in what were then the still rural southern and western parts of Edina. The unevenness in residential development is reflected in casualties. Fifteen of the 25 households in today’s Edina that trace to servicemen who perished during the Second World War were clustered within Morningside, Edina’s Country Club District (which had 4% of Edina’s land and a third of its dwellings), and adjoining neighborhoods. Like many other communities across America, adults and children living in Edina and Morningside were fully mobilized in both patriotic spirit and activities on the home front during WWII. While family members, friends, neighbors, and co-workers were away serving in the military, the 7,200 residents of the two villages anxiously waited for their safe return. The hopeful community members purchased War Bonds and Stamps and vigorously participated in paper and scrap drives, rationing, Red Cross sewing and blood donor programs, and other patriotic endeavors that supported the war effort. Many also worked in critical defense industries. At the same time, absent sons and daughters in uniform were also embraced and celebrated at local churches and by students and faculty members at the Wooddale School. 2 The service billboard and display panel combination that stood at the corner of 44th Street and France Avenue to honor Morningside men and woman in uniform testifies to the community’s heightened wartime commitment and cohesiveness. There was a name and blue service star for each man or woman from Morningside who was serving, and a name and gold star for each resident who had perished. The first gold star posted was in remembrance of Frank Ellis Jr., who was a crewmember on the USS Arizona when the iconic battleship was sunk during the Japanese attack against U.S. military installations and naval vessels at Pearl Harbor the morning of December 7, 1941. Several Morningside families had multiple members recognized on the service billboard and panel. The Schapers, Hirsches, Entrikins, Phelpses, and Courtneys were prominent among them. Five of the blue stars were for sons of Arthur and Lucie Schaper. Three Hirsch brothers also had blue stars. Two other blue stars were for George and Norma Entrikin. A third star, a gold one, was displayed for their brother John, who had been killed while serving in the Pacific Theatre. Boyd Phelps, whose esteemed grandfather Jonathan Taylor Grimes once owned most of the land that constituted Morningside, was recognized with a blue star. So was his son, Boyd Phelps Jr. The elder Phelps saw service in both the First and Second World Wars. Wayne Courtney and his sister Yvonne were also recognized with personalized blue service stars. Wayne Courtney went on to serve as Mayor of the reunified Village of Edina. Though as deeply committed, Edina did not have a focal point display on the scale of the Morningside service billboard and panel arrangement to publicly recognize Village residents serving in uniform during World War II. A group of Edina citizens joined together at war’s end in 1945 for the purpose of creating a memorial to honor the more than 600 men and women from the Village who had served. World War I Marine aviator Elmer Williams, whose son had died fighting in World War II, played a leading role in the project. The display of appreciation to hometown veterans would have stood off of West 50th Street and Wooddale Avenue; but the noble endeavor clashed with post-war development urgencies, and the goal was never realized. The Edina American Legion Post later established a memorial flagpole in close proximity to that location to honor the patriotic men and women who had served our country in times of war and peace. 3 The American Legion flagpole was part of a larger effort undertaken by neighborhood and civic groups to preserve and enhance the park area abutting the Minnehaha Creek in the vicinity of the West 50th Street and Wooddale Avenue intersection. The flagpole was dedicated May 30, 1955. Edina and Morningside were still separated at that time. The American Legion tribute, which remains a cordial presence on the southwest corner of West 50th Street and Wooddale Avenue, would not be Edina’s last or most prominent physical expression of gratitude to its and all American veterans. THE EDINA VETERANS MEMORIAL PROJECT In keeping with Edina’s deeply imbedded patriotic spirit, its citizens, businesses, and civic organizations joined together with their staunchly supportive municipal government and state legislators in a collaborative undertaking whose ultimate result was the establishment of a lasting veterans memorial in Edina. The dignified landmark interlaces civic and national pride to honor the contributions and sacrifices of all Americans, especially - but not only - those with Edina connections, who have served, are serving, or will someday serve in our nation’s armed forces. The parallel contributions and sacrifices of waiting families and others in the community are also recognized. Organized planning for the collaborative undertaking began in 2010, when Edina’s Parks and Recreation Department Director John Keprios and visionary Edina resident Mike Goergen secured backing from Mayor Jim Hovland and the City Council for the project. A volunteer committee chaired by Goergen was then established to develop and implement a project plan for a permanent tribute to the veterans who have valiantly served over the years to protect our nation’s freedoms. The resultant Edina Veterans Memorial was dedicated on Memorial Day, May 25, 2015. Popular John Keprios had retired by that time, and his partner Mike Goergen had been succeeded as head of the memorial committee by the equally enthused closer Richard Olson. Dedication of the Edina Veterans Memorial at Utley Park May 25, 2015 4 Edina’s celebratory Veterans Memorial is positioned at West 50th Street and Wooddale Avenue, in an attractively landscaped part of Utley Park.