February 24, 1918, 96 years-ago today, Private David Hickey became the first St. Louisan to die in World War One. He was killed in the Battle of Toul, in Northeast France. Hickey lived at 5872 Garfield, & was a shoe worker when he volunteered for service. Inducted at Jefferson Barracks, April 27, 1917, he was in the first group sent overseas. Assigned to Battery E of the 6th Field Artillery, he was wounded in action on February 12th, & died 12 days later. When the war ended, each casualtys next-of-kin was given the option of visiting their loved ones grave overseas at government expense, or having the remains brought home. David Hickeys closest living relative, a sister, chose to have him returned. In early July, 1921, his were among the remains of 7,264 servicemen arriving at Hoboken, New Jersey. Twenty-two would be returning to St. Louis. Hickey was one of the 15 who had a joint funeral service at The Armory, located at Grand & Market. Over 1,000 attended to pay their respects, & with full military honors, David Hickey was buried that day in the American Legion section of Memorial Park Cemetery on Lucas & Hunt. On April 10, 1941, a City Park was named in honor of David Hickey, but ironically, the ground was later purchased by the Federal Government to expand their ammunition plant on Goodfellow. A new Hickey Park was dedicated on North Broadway in 1948. During World War I Mrs. Frank de Garmo founded the National Society of the 1917 World War Registrars Inc. She organized the Missouri state registrars to collect records of all Missouri boys before they went overseas. As the war progressed, she also formed a group known as the Gold Star Mothers, a group of St. Louis mothers of soldiers who died in World War I. In the 1920s the Gold Star Mothers organized an effort to honor their sons and daughters who died in service by creating a memorial plaque for each soldier, sailor, and marine. The plaques were cast in bronze, containing a gold star and the name, rank, outfit, cause of death, and branch of service of the person being honored. A Court of Honor was erected to display the plaques in the median of Kingshighway Boulevard. The Court of Honor contained 1,185 bronze gold star plaques and a European sycamore tree was planted alongside each plaque. At that time, the name of Kingshighway was changed to Kingshighway Memorial Drive, from Easton Avenue north to West Florissant. The plaques remained on Kingshighway Memorial Drive from the 1920s to the 1980s, when the median was modified due to street expansions. In 1962, during the construction of I-70, bulldozers plowed some of the markers under and rolled over others, crushing them. In 1982, as part of the widening of Kingshighway , the earthmovers returned and again destroyed many markers. City workers and members of the Legion Post 15, using metal detectors, managed to save 752 Of the original 1185 plaques. After being in storage for decades, & with the support of the Jefferson Barracks Chapel Association, these plaques are now part of a World War One Memorial at the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery, honoring these fallen soldiers in their home town of St. Louis and amongst their fellow fallen soldiers. The WW1 Court of Honor Memorial was dedicated on September 30, 2012. Two walls of black granite into which the plaques are installed allow for them to be viewed from both sides of each wall. The two walls are each anchored with a concrete column, one containing a plaque describing the history of the WWI plaques and the other containing a plaque that lists the names from the missing plaques. The two walls symbolize the two sections of Kingshighway Memorial Drive that was the original home of the plaques. Photo: David Hickey, Gold Star Court of Honor Dedication, Gold Star Disks
Posted on: Mon, 24 Feb 2014 07:27:45 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015