Marysville Cemetery honors Memorial Day

On Memorial Day weekend at the Marysville Cemetery, Marysville residents are invited to honor military service members who have died in service to this county.

The Marysville cemetery is at 8801 State Ave., Marysville.

Buckets and brushes will be provided for those who wish to clean family or other headstones of veterans.

Grave flags will also be available through donation. Those funds will support the Marysville American Legion Post and the Marysville Cemetery’s flag display.

The Marysville American Legion usually holds a gathering and ceremony at the cemetery, however because of the coronavirus pandemic the local American Legion post was not able to plan for one.

“Some people are still a little leery because of COVID,” said Beth Opel, family service counselor at the Marysville Cemetery.

That Memorial Day ceremony is expected to return in 2022.

This year’s services at the cemetery will be similar to past years, but without the American Legion’s gathering.

“It has been a community event for decades,” said Opel, who added that the cemetery has always tried to put out flags to honor veterans since at least the ‘80s.

Community volunteers and Marysville American Legion members put up more than 250 flags at the cemetery every year.

“We’ll put up the flag display starting on Saturday [May 29],” said Opel.

The flags are displayed along the cemetery driveways from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day of the holiday weekend.

Memorial Day is meant to recognize those who have passed while in military service and the cemetery tries to continue that tradition, said Opel.

“This is to honor the veterans who have passed,” she said. “Here at the Marysville Cemetery we have veterans buried here from the Civil War all the way to the modern conflicts."

On Memorial Day itself, from 2 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. a local trio, The Choppers Brass, will perform a free concert by the main flagpole at the cemetery.

Local high school students are expected to come out to perform with the band, said Opel.

She said that many students haven’t gotten to perform much over the past year and are looking forward to the opportunity to get out and perform in the community again.

For more information about the Memorial Day service at the Marysville Cemetery, locals can contact them at 360-659-5762 or by e-mailing [email protected].