Jet ready for a day to remember
F-15 Eagles assigned to the 142nd Fighter Wing
Newport’s historic Eureka Cemetery & Mausoleum will be honored with a military flyover by the United States Air Force 142nd Wing during this year’s Memorial Day celebration on Monday, May 26.
As is traditional, the cemetery will be decorated with thousands of flags, placed on the graves by local volunteers to honor the veterans who rest there.
The celebration will begin with prayers offered by the Rev. John Smithies of Atonement Lutheran Church and posting of the Colors by local members of the US Coast Guard. The event will include additional short speeches, poetry and local student Dylan Gibson sounding “Taps” on trumpet.
The flags flying in the spring breezes offer strength and comfort to families and the local community, which this cemetery has served for more than a century.
The cemetery continues to sponsor the program to Adopt a Grave belonging to a veteran buried in the cemetery who might have no family in the area to maintain the marker or headstone. Anyone who wishes to assist this effort is invited to contribute $75 toward one year’s resurfacing or repair of a marker in need of maintenance. A donor may select a specific grave to serve or contact the office for help in determining a recipient.
Eureka Cemetery is the oldest in Lincoln County and is known as a Pioneer Cemetery. The initial 22 acres, once rich farmland, were donated in 1879 “to the public of Yaquina Bay for use as a cemetery.” Many notable citizens of the area are buried there. The grounds offer stone benches and picnic tables as places of contemplation. In summer evenings, members of the resident deer and elk herds sometimes share the grounds with local families. The many rugged evergreens bordering the lawns include a Monterey cypress which, though battered by recent storms, has survived for more than a century.
The Memorial Day celebration begins at 11 am on the grounds of the Eureka Cemetery, located at 1101 NE Yaquina Heights Road in Newport. For more information, go to eurekacemetery.org or call 541-265-7282.