Letter: Leave donation to your post

Although I live in an “old folks” home called Knollwood in Washington, D.C., which was established 62 years ago by Mamie Eisenhower for widows of servicemen, I am a regular reader of The Minnesota Legionnaire because of two veterans in Owatonna.

Neill Bennett (ret. Navy) sends me each issue, and Curt Abraham (ret. Army) serves on the honor guard at funerals. I have a keen interest in your publication as my father who died in Owatonna some years ago was a retired Air Force captain. In retirement, he regularly rode the Legion van to Fort Snelling to play “Taps” at funerals. Oh, how he missed that when he resided in a nursing home and could no longer play his trumpet.

So following his death at 93 years of age and having no close friends or his wife still alive, he wanted no funeral but desired that the money spent for such a ceremony be donated to the Legion post to help purchase a new van so others could continue the tradition of the 60-mile trek north to honor their fallen comrades.

It was the best contribution we made in his name so I encourage others to leave a little something from a serviceman’s estate to his local Legion in hopes that other Legionnaires will benefit in some way from a serviceman’s passing.

And I am particularly proud that The Minnesota Legionnaire is now in its 101st year of publication. Congratulations!

Kathy A. Megyeri
Washington, D.C.