Saratoga News

City remembers its veterans in Memorial Day ceremonies

Scouts place laurel boughs on graves

Retired flight nurse speaks

By Carolyn Leal

It's one of the events that makes Saratoga feel like everyone's hometown. Flags waving in the breeze. Patriotic speeches and music. Laurel boughs placed on the graves of the war dead.

Saratoga's traditional Memorial Day observance will be held Monday, May 26, beginning at 9:30 a.m. with a brief ceremony at the Veteran's Memorial Arch in Blaney Plaza on Highway 9 and continuing at historic Madronia Cemetery on Oak Street.

Col. Sally A. Brenner, a retired Air Force flight nurse and a Vietnam veteran, will be the featured speaker at the cemetery. She will discuss the healing process as it relates to her experiences during the Vietnam War.

Brenner, a 27-year Saratoga resident and professor of health science at Ohlone College in Fremont, was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal, for exceptional contributions as a soldier and an educator, on her recent retirement. During her 30 years of military service, she has held key assignments with the state and Army National Guard.

She has graduate degrees in both nursing and education from San Jose State University and a doctorate in higher education from the University of Southern California.

The ceremony begins with the presentation of a wreath at the Memorial Arch by Winifred Simpson, president of the Saratoga Foothill Club, which coordinates the annual memorial service. The American flag will be raised by Commander Jean Hawkins, Post #344 of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and Commander Lionel Faunce, Post #6 AMVETS.

The Saratoga High School Band, led by Kenneth Rydeen, will lead the assembly up Oak Street to Madronia Cemetery. The public is invited to join the group, which will include members of veterans organizations, Saratoga Boy and Girl Scout troops, El Sereno 4-H Club and Children of the American Revolution.

Pastor Arvin Engelson of the Saratoga Federated Church will offer an invocation, and there will be a welcome from Mayor Gillian Moran. The Saratoga High School Choir, directed by Jenny Guemmer, will perform, and Girl Scouts and Brownies will place laurel boughs on over 500 veterans' graves in the cemetery. The service will conclude with the playing of "Taps."

The Saratoga Foothill Club has coordinated this annual community event at Madronia Cemetery since 1922. The cemetery was founded in 1854, and Blaney Plaza Memorial Arch was built in 1919 to honor service people killed in World War I.

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