Historical Society hosts Memorial Day exhibit
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The Coffee County Historical Society has officially unveiled its latest in a series of temporary exhibits at the Johanna Lewis Museum of Coffee County History located within the historic Coffee County Courthouse.
Museum volunteer Sandra McMullin Bennett said she and volunteer museum Curator Bonnie Gamble believed it was important for the historical society to create an exhibit honoring those from Coffee County who made the ultimate sacrifice in service to their country.
Beginning with World War I and concluding with the Vietnam War, the exhibit shows the number of men who died in each conflict, as well as photographs and some personal history.
“This board has all of the men, because there were no women as far as we have been able to tell, that died in service to our country from Coffee County,” Bennett said.
Out of the four wars included, Bennett said the largest number of causalities fought in World War II.
“The Vietnam War only had 18 that died, but they literally were all just basically children, 18, 19, 20 years old, they had barely been out of high school,” she said.
One display case in the museum now houses photographs of each of the men from Coffee County that died during the Vietnam War. Bennett said those were provided by V.F.W. Post 10904 Commander Kim King.
Bennett said she also worked to fill in missing data for these men, such as where they are buried.
“Some of the lists were incomplete, it had their names but it might not have had some of their information like where they were buried so I did the research and found where they were buried,” she said. “I tried to make it as complete as possible so if their families come to visit they have all that information there, that it is not left blank like we forgot to finish them out.”
The exhibit is open 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
For more information, visit the http://www.cctnhs.org or the Coffee County Historical Society Facebook page.
