BEFORE THE BUILDING...
notes from Jack Thompson
We held our meetings at the Legion club. The Court of
Honor didn't look to good. The flags were stored in the basement of the city hall in cardboards
boxes. The tops were open and not kept very well. The trailer was in the old building behind the
old fire station. What sockets we had were stuck along the wall.
It was decided to build a building. Del Shepard said he would donate $5000 to start a
fundraiser. Mike Boylan and Lloyd Hicks were the leaders. People gave what they could. $40,000 was
the goal. We got $20,000 and then the well went dry. We decided to put up a plain steel building
with a dirt floor...just something to call our own. Lloyd and Carol kept books and everyone who
gave had their names recorded, along with the amount. Those records are still in the office. We had
two bids on the building. They were close but the Mercantile was local so went with that.
Then things changed. Marion Murphy passed away. She liked the Court of Honor and she left
us $10,000. Then we got some $1,000 donations and finally we got our $40,000 goal. There had been
no plans for the internal part of the building. It was done as we went along. The additional
funding went to the water and sewer, the meeting room, the flag room, the wiring and the rest for
two trailers. The roll up doors and suspended ceiling in the meeting room and all the wiring were
done by Gordy Perkins and Lee Walters.
We decided on the location for the building. It would need 30" of clay fill dirt. Don Cashatt
furnished dirt, loader, 3 dump trucks and a roller-dozer, as well as a man to use the level. I was
designated to dump the trucks. We had a good man on the dozer. The 30" was off of road height.
The building was purchased from Farmers Mercantile and erected by their contractor. The floor
was poured by Echternach Construction.
The interior of the building was done by lots of local people and Court of Honor members
under the direction of Lloyd Hicks.
The ditch for the water and sewer was dug by Homer Focht from Alix Ave. to the building. Mike
from Larson Plumbing and Jack Thompson laid the lines.
Number one - always talk to the cemetery people about driving sockets. They have to locate the
markers for the lots. They are not all the same. We tired to stay 4 feet outside of the
markers.
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Years ago, before the building was built, the cemetery replaced some water lines. It amounted
to several hundred feet of 1 1/4" gaiv. pipe. They gave the old pipe to the Court of Honor.
The pipe came out in lots of pieces. Some was cut in 20' pieces that had to be straightened but we
could use most of it for sockets. We ended up with about 300 sockets. We had a chop saw to cut them
in to 2' pieces. Then one end had to be crimped. The junk yard had a huge shearer that we used for
that. The sockets were stored in the old fire station building with 2 trailers. Don't remember who
did all of this except Lloyd Hicks, Rex Holmes, Jack Thompson and 2 other guys.
Later those sockets were driven along the north fence. They are driven about 15' south of each
fence post. Two guys would measure and mark the spot with a wire flag. Jack drove the tractor and
George Petty held the driver and socket on all of those. The city tractor was the best to drive
socket.
The building was up so we needed black dirt to finish the slopes and the low spot south of the
building. The city had a big pile of dirt north of the building. The city gave us the dirt and the
use of the park loader tractor. Jack hauled dirt on all sides of the building and the low spot to
the south. That took several evenings and a week- end to do this. I had hardly got the low spot
filled when the seeding crew of Court of Honor members moved in. It was done.
Gordy Perkins and the Boy Scouts planted the bushes and the rail fence. The flag pole was
donated by Homer Focht. It came from Homer's Shop. It had been cut in two and had to be welded
again. Guess Who?
First Fly over: Villisca had one the year before led by a guy from Villisca. We got a name and
wrote to Washington DC and got a fly over the next year. It was a 4 plane fly over with the first
pass at 11:00 - they turned and the second pass was the missing man formation. Haven't had 4 planes
since? One year, we tried for a B1 Bomber but didn't get it. Several years ago the planes came from
South Carolina. A Red Oak Boy led them. 4 planes flew into Offitt Air Force Base. 2 planes did the
fly over. They were in radio contact from the ceremony to the planes. Avery Boose got the names
added to the War II monument in the park. Grant, Villisca, Stanton and Red Oak American Legion
Clubs joined to dedicate that. General Christenson was our memorial day speaker. He came a day
early to seach for names in the cemetery. We have his speech on tape. It was great. Vice President
Bush came to town. His body guards had to see everything. We didn't put out any flags. Much of the
paving in front and the west side was paid for by Del Shepard.
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