Legion, historical society keep joint tradition honoring soldiers, community members on Memorial Day
June 5, 2024 | By Cheryl Casey | Correspondent
On Memorial Day morning, members of American Legion Post 59 and the Waterbury Historical Society for the 18th year combined to commemorate those who have fallen in the service of the United States Armed Forces and to highlight the lives and contributions of past Waterbury community members.
This year, the event was held at Maple Street Cemetery in Waterbury Center on May 27.
Americal Legion Post Commander Wayne Goulet led the ceremony, which included his recitation of John McCrae’s World War I poem, “On Flanders Field,” a multi-gun salute by the legion’s Honor Guard, and “Taps” on bugle by Chris Wood. A cappella singers Rebecca Ellis, Duncan McDougall, Betsy Ainsworth and John Buck performed “America the Beautiful.”
Following the ceremony, more than 60 attendees broke into four groups to walk the circuit of four stations for the Waterbury Historical Society Ghost Walk program – each stop focusing on a person or persons who lived and worked in Waterbury but aren’t buried within town cemeteries.
Members of the historical society served as group guides and presenters. At one station, Brian Lindner, who also served as event emcee, spoke about five Waterbury men classified as Missing in Action following combat in the U.S. military. Four of them – Leon Collins, Thomas Flannery, Earl Sevene and James Stewart – were lost during World War II.
Brian Lindner's presentation (center) focused on five Missing In Action local U.S. servicemen. Photo by Joe Camaratta for Waterbury Historical Society
The fifth, Capt. John Lafayette, went missing during a clandestine Vietnam War mission over Laos when the two planes that he and three other airmen were flying in went down. Linder has been doggedly researching Lafayette’s story for some time. He said he has been able to access military records from U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ office and has learned an interesting twist to the airman’s story.
According to the records, the four airmen were captured on the ground by a group of North Vietnamese soldiers, who intended to take them as prisoners of war because they were all American officers. However, a North Vietnamese colonel later attested to shooting Capt. Lafayette as he tried to run up the other side of a gully in which the officers were trapped.
The colonel’s statement confirmed that the airman was given a proper burial on site; not long after, the entire area was destroyed by a flood, carrying away Lafayette’s remains. Lindner surprised the group by revealing that the search for Capt. Lafayette has been reopened and “people are on the ground right now, looking for John’s remains.”
P. Howard "Skip" Flanders shares a presentation during the Memorial Day Ghost Walk. Photo by Joe Camaratta for Waterbury Historical Society
All five of the missing servicemen are listed on the monuments in Rusty Parker Memorial Park in downtown Waterbury.
At a second station, P. Howard “Skip” Flanders presented the story of Orrilla “Ollie” (Somerville) O’Clair (1886-1957), who was known for many significant contributions to Waterbury. According to Flanders, Ollie was a published poet and wrote the class poem for her graduating class of 1912 at Waterbury High School – the largest graduating class at the time.
Later after graduating from Albany Business College, O’Clair returned to Waterbury to work at O’Clair Granite Works as a stenographer. Flanders said she “married the boss,” Clifton O’Clair, in 1918. When Clifton died just three years later, Ollie became “the only woman owning and working in the granite industry in the country” at the time, Flanders said. She also went on to be the first woman elected as a Village Trustee, a post she held from 1924-1928. She is buried in Stowe.
Rosina Wallace shares stories of her parents Keith and Gladys Wallace during her Memorial Day presentation. Photo by Joe Camaratta for Waterbury Historical Society
Rosina Wallace told the story of her parents, Keith and Gladys (Pike) Wallace, whose dairy farm on Blush Hill was only one of the many, many projects and commitments occupying their time. Keith (1908-1995) was a fixture in town and state politics, serving as Town Moderator and elected office on the school board and in both the state House and Senate. He was a leader in the Vermont Farm Bureau, the Wesley United Methodist Church, and with the Grange.
Gladys (1917-1986) defied her Waterbury High School class of 1936 prediction that she would be “the proprietress of Pike’s Beauty Parlor, specializing in bob cuts,” according to daughter Rosina, to specialize instead in playing piano and organ for churches and the Grange, farming, needlework, and playing bridge. Rosina added that her mother “could pull off big family gatherings without a hitch.” In 1982, the Vermont Farm Bureau honored Gladys as “Farm Wife of the Year.”
Keith and Gladys had their ashes placed on the family farm. “For Mom and Dad, that ‘special place’ was the farm,” Rosina recalled. “They made it special and shared it with friends and family.”
The final stop in the circuit was Charlie Grenier’s presentation about Dascomb “Dac” Rowe (1897-1995), the beloved principal, teacher, and coach at Waterbury High School. Grenier joked about Rowe’s time at the University of Vermont, where he enrolled after serving in World War I. “[Rowe] slept through a lot of his classes,” Grenier quipped, adding fondly, “I suspect he slept through them because he was bored, as he was so bright.”
In his Memorial Day talk, Charlie Grenier looks back on the life of Dascomb Rowe. Photo by Joe Camaratta for Waterbury Historical Society
Rowe stepped into the principal role at Waterbury High School in 1926, occupying the position for 33 years until 1959. He was the primary driver behind the building of the school gym in 1937. “He encouraged physical fitness,” Grenier said. Rowe also “coached baseball, basketball, and cross country at one point or another,” Grenier added. Rowe is the namesake for Waterbury’s playing fields along North Main Street.
When Rowe retired from teaching mathematics at Harwood Union High School in 1967, the community rallied to gift him a new Chevrolet. “He ran it until it was a bucket of bolts,” laughed Grenier. Rowe is buried in Peacham.
The Memorial Day Ceremony and Ghost Walk is organized each year by Waterbury Historical Society board member Jan Gendreau, who also led a group of attendees around the circuit of presentations. Jane and Paul Willard and society vice-president Jill Chase led the other three groups.
Cheryl Casey is president of the Waterbury Historical Society.