United States Navy Veteran, John R. Hoagland, who will turn 90 years old on May 28, will raise the Flag for the 69th consecutive year at the Green Lawn Cemetery Memorial Day services in Schell City at 11 a.m. Monday, May 29. Mr. Hoagland enlisted in the Navy at the age of 17 and served our county from 1951-1953 during the Korean conflict.
When Mr. Hoagland returned home in 1954, he began raising the Flag on Memorial Day as a tribute to his brother, Mitchell N. Hoagland, who was killed in a motor vehicle accident near Lamar while home on leave form the US Army. Because he was out to sea when his brother was killed in 1953, and was unable to return for the funeral, the flag that he raised for several years was in fact, the Flag that had draped his brother’s coffin.
The raising of the Flag at Green Lawn Cemetery each year on Memorial Day is steeped history for the Hoagland family.

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