Monday, May 31, 1999

Names of vets live on at memorial

---

BY ERIN GIBSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Lsabel Courtney paid to have bricks at Blue Ash Bicentennial Verterans Memorial Park inscribed with the names of family and friends, including her father, World War I vet Gilbert B. Courtney. | ZOOM |

        BLUE ASH — A little park here is filled with bricks, granite and bronze. But Isabel Courtney Hall calls it a hallowed ground for reflection and remembrance of sacrifices by the nation's veterans.

        “Thinking about all that they have given — it's very humbling,” Mrs. Hall said. “I get tears in my eyes just thinking about it.”

        Blue Ash Bicentennial Veterans Memorial Park holds the Tristate's largest veterans memorial, a nine-sided hunk of carved black granite surrounded by a red-brick promenade, 10 life-size bronze statues of soldiers, and a circle of American flags.

        The soldiers, detailed down to chipped fingernails and embossed coat buttons, look toward the granite centerpiece. Each wears a period uniform. The nationally known landmark commemorates all veterans and 10 major U.S. conflicts, from the Revolutionary War to the Persian Gulf War.

        The memorial, at Hunt and Cooper roads, has personal meaning for Mrs. Hall, of Madeira. Of nearly 3,800 bricks inscribed with veterans' names and military histories, 28 bear the names of her family members and friends.

        Mrs. Hall is among a few thousand people who have honored veterans by inscribing their names on the bricks. She had her husband's name, Charles F. Hall, inscribed after the World War II Air Corps veteran died Aug. 7 last year.

        She found having his name inscribed helped her as she grieved. She also inscribed bricks for his brothers, her brothers, her father and a relative who fought in the Civil War.

        “I just kept thinking of people I wanted to honor,” Mrs. Hall said. “It's just a small gift that I could give in exchange for all that each of these men have given to the country.”

        Next, she ordered bricks for cousins, uncles, friends and five students she taught

Among the memorial's 3,800 inscribed bricks ar those of Mrs. Hall's husband, Charles and his brother. | ZOOM |

        40 years ago while a music teacher at Williams Avenue Elementary in Norwood.

        She pointed out many bricks Friday afternoon while visiting the memorial.

        Each brick is laid near the statue that signifies the war or period in which the veteran served. Each has a story.

        There's Alonzo Courtney, a relative from Ohio who volunteered as a Union soldier and died in a Civil War prisoner camp two weeks before the war's end.

        There's Mrs. Hall's late husband, who flew planes in Africa from 1942 to 1945. Around his neck, he wore a lucky leather pouch an African boy had given him.

        The boy told him the pouch contained “prayers from the great Mohammed,” Mrs. Hall said, standing above his brick. “He said, "As long as you wear this, your plane will never crash.'”

        It never did.

        Near the Vietnam statue, there's Charles Stackhouse, who was Mrs. Hall's student in the seventh grade. He was a Navy commander for 21 years and spent six years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, she said.

        Tom Stone, an Army veteran from 1958 to 1960, lives near the memorial and keeps an eye on it from his window at night.

        He said the park feels almost like sacred ground to many people because of the veterans honored there.

        Mr. Stone had his name and six other family members' names inscribed.

        Today, Mrs. Hall and Mr. Stone will join thousands to watch a Memorial Day parade that will end with a service at the memorial.

        Anyone can add a veteran's name to the memorial for $25, the cost of engraving a brick. The city adds new bricks each year in time for Memorial Day.

        “It only becomes more popular, significant and appreciated as the years go by,” City Manager Marvin Thompson said. “Hopefully, we'll never have to add another bronze statue.”

       

---

Names of vets live on at memorial
Corryville shooting suspect in custody after standoff
Girl, grandmother escape
Principal imparts wisdom in book
Amusement parks safe, reports show
Good morning, Cincinnati
Need a map or directions? Internet offers drivers plenty of help
Trail of cookies leads to capital
War's hard at any age
West-side plan riddled with doubt
Wish list asks for $11.7M
New life for grand old hotel
Patriotic sculpture coming to Edgewood, its creator's home
Planes to soar, loop at air show
Standard on ozone left in air by ruling
Dogstar crowd comes to ogle Keanu Reeves
GET TO IT
TRISTATE DIGEST