Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, May 26, 1995 TAG: 9505260048
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The unveiling will be part of a Memorial Day program the foundation will present at Bedford Elementary School, which is adjacent to the 20-acre D-Day memorial site on Virginia 122 North.
Speakers at the event will include Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke; former Roanoke Mayor Noel Taylor; Bedford Mayor Michael Shelton; and Lucille Boggess, a member of the Bedford County Board of Supervisors, who lost two brothers on Normandy's Omaha Beach on D-Day.
Music will be performed by the Liberty High School and Bedford Middle School choruses, under the direction of Terry Campbell, and by the 29th Infantry Division band under the direction of Sgt. 1st Class Fred G. Lewis II.
The site for the memorial was given to the foundation on Veterans Day, Nov. 11, 1994, by the City of Bedford, along with $250,000 in site improvements. It was one of two sites considered by the Roanoke-based foundation. The other was at Entranceway Park near the Hotel Roanoke.
Plans for the finished memorial will be revealed Monday, along with information on fund-raising and the construction timetable. The foundation has added to its board John Eisenhower, son of former President and Allied commander Dwight D. Eisenhower; David Montgomery, son of British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery; and Stephen Ambrose, director of the Eisenhower Center in New Orleans and author of a widely acclaimed book on D-Day, according to foundation chairman Bob Slaughter of Roanoke.
Bedford and surrounding Bedford County had 19 of its men killed on D-Day, June 6, 1944, when Allied armies invaded Nazi-occupied France.
Monday afternoon, Bedford will conduct its own Memorial Day program on the courthouse steps on Main Street. For more information, call Ellen Wandrei at (703) 586-4520, Elizabeth Berry-Mosely at (703) 586-2148 or Bob Slaughter at (703) 989-6512.
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