By Paula Pyzik Scott / CLICK photos to enlarge

A beautiful day in Ada’s Woodlawn Cemetery provided blue skies and waving flags during the annual Memorial Day services co-hosted by the Ream McElroy Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 9381 and Foss-Agin-Meyer American Legion Post 185.

The event featured the VFW Color Guard and Ada High School Band directed by Mr. Benjamin Hemming. The program was emceed by Matt Crawford, American Legion Commander.

Ada High School junior Callie Burgess, who is the 2026 American Legion Buckeye Girls State Representative, recited the Gettysburg Address and the poem In Flanders Fields.

The VFW Auxiliary placed red floral crosses around the cemetery’s memorial to veterans from the region, one for each war the United States has fought.

The guest speaker was Command Sergeant Major (Retired) Allen Conley, who reflected on past presidents including George Washington, “our beginning father, and he told them he was not gonna be King Washington. He was going to be a president.” Conley also spoke of great leaders, President Abraham Lincoln, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and civil rights leader Martin Luther King: “he lost his life, speaking for every American. He believed in what Americans stood for. 
And that all Americans should be free.”

A short service was also held at Preston Cemetery, Alger.