Speaker: Lyle McCarty
Foothill Club to coordinate Memorial Day celebration
Local war veteran is guest speaker
By Kara Chalmers
On May 29, the Saratoga Foothill Club will hold its traditional Memorial Day observance celebration.
The day's events will begin at 9:30 a.m., with a brief wreath presentation at Memorial Arch on Saratoga-Los Gatos Road, next to the fire station. At the arch, the VFW Post 344 and the AMVETS Post 6, will raise the flag, according to Marty Clevenger, co-chairperson of the Foothill Club's committee on the Memorial Day celebration.
A walk up Oak Street to the tree-shaded, hillside Madronia Cemetery will follow the ceremony at Memorial Arch. Veterans of all United States wars since the civil war--636 people in all--are buried at Madronia, according to Gary Reed, the district manager for the Saratoga Cemetery District.
At 10 a.m., at the cemetery, Rev. Judith Stone of Grace United Methodist Church is scheduled to deliver the invocation, and Mayor Stan Bogosian will give a welcoming address on behalf of Saratoga. The Saratoga High School Concert Choir will sing, Clevenger said.
The guest speaker will be Lyle McCarty, a World War II veteran and Saratoga resident. McCarty was a navigator on a B-24 bomber in Italy. He flew 35 combat missions and wrote a book on the history of the 459th Bombardment Group entitled Coffee Tower. He will speak during the cemetery program.
Members of Saratoga Brownie and Girl Scout troops and the El Sereno 4H Club will then lay laurel leaves on the graves, and Boy Scout Troop 535 will present a color guard ceremony.
Members of the Foothill Club have coordinated Saratoga's Memorial Day celebration since 1928, Clevenger said.
Saratoga, California Since 1955
