World War I Court of Honor Memorial

This is a story of one American Legion Post’s dedication to preserving a piece of St Louis history that could have been lost forever. In St. Louis, the National World War Registrars of 1917 were charged with registering each and every St Louis citizen who was in the military. Mrs. Frank DeGarmo was the leader of the Registrars and following the war she was instrumental in forming the St Louis chapter of the Gold Star Mothers. During the war, if you had someone in your household who was serving the military, you hung a blue star in your window. If that someone died, the blue star was covered with a Gold Star. The Gold Star Mothers were organized to help families with their loss and most importantly, to help others remember those who were lost in war. Following the war, the Gold Star Mothers of St Louis established a memorial that would honor all of the sons and daughters of St Louis who had died as a result of the war. One thousand one hundred and eighty five bronze plaques were created and were laid in the grassy boulevard of north Kingshighway. Beside each plaque, a European sycamore tree was planted and the three mile stretch was renamed Kingshighway Memorial Boulevard. Each plaque contained a gold star with the name, rank, outfit, cause of death and branch of service of the person being honored. The veterans of Italian descent who lived on the ‘Hill’ in St Louis had formed a group known as the Italian American Alliance after their return from the war. Across the country, veteran organizations were forming to continue the comraderie, to continue to serve the country and most importantly, to remember those who were lost in each war. In 1926, the Italian American Alliance Post 1 merged with the newly formed American Legion and the Rollo Post 15 was established. It was named for Emilio Rollo, a fallen soldier from the Hill. After World War II, the name was changed to Rollo-Calcaterra Post 15. Angelo Calcaterra was a resident of the Hill who was lost in the South Pacific in 1944. In the early 1980s, and after Interstate 70 was completed, the City of St Louis initiated changes to Kingshighway that included eliminating the grassy boulevard to create center turn lanes. As work progressed, it was discovered by the Post 15 members that the bronze plaques were being removed and discarded. The Post rallied and saved 753 of the plaques with one goal – to find a new home for the memorial. The plaques were stored in barrels in the basement of Soldiers’ Memorial in downtown St Louis. Again, the plaques were in danger of being discarded and again Post 15 came to their rescue, removing them from the basement and storing them at an undisclosed location for nearly twenty years. For those twenty years, the search was on for a new home for the plaques. The remaining plaques were catalogued and members of the Post added the names of the missing plaques to their records. There was hope that the plaques could be placed at the Soldiers’ Memorial but the City vetoed the request. In the early 2000s, OWH, a local architectural firm was completing an expansion to Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery. Work was being done in the Chapel and Al Katzenberger, a member of the Chapel Association at Jefferson Barracks arranged a meeting between Bob Winters of OWH and Skip Berger of the American Legion Post 15 to discuss the memorial they were hoping to re-create. Several design proposals were discussed and eventually were reviewed by the National Cemetery Association, however, these design efforts were rejected by the Memorial Committee in Washington, DC. The VA engineer, Glenn Madderom and the Cemetery Director, Jeff Barnes encouraged Post 15 to keep trying and to find a different location at the Cemetery. A new design was developed that would gather all of the remaining plaques and the names of the missing plaques into two granite walls situated on a concrete plaza and surrounded by trees that would be symbolic of the trees planted beside each plaque on Kingshighway. Two columns would hold the story of the plaques, a map of Kingshighway and the emblem of the American Legion. The site was to be part of a path the cemetery had created for memorials. The new design was submitted and after a year, the approval came from the Memorial Committee in Washington for the final design. The Post had established a fund and donations were coming in but it would be a long time before the $250,000 was raised to construct the memorial. Enter Al Katzenberger who discovered a grant program through the St Louis County Economic Development that were being made to any organization who wanted to improve the area of St Louis where the cemetery was located. Contact with the Port Authority and Development Board was made and within three weeks, the application for a grant to cover the cost of construction was submitted. That was May of 2011 and by August, the request had been overwhelmingly approved. The grant stipulated that the money needed to be spent in one year starting October 1 of 2011. Construction documents were prepared, VA review and approval was secured and in March, 2012, bids were taken for the construction. Contracts were awarded and the day following the groundbreaking in May, the crew from Orf Construction began their work which would include excavation, sewer piping, grading, pouring of concrete, planting and finally, installation of the granite columns and walls. The plaques were organized by Post 15, numbered and shipped to Minnesota where Cold Springs Granite set the plaques into thick slabs of granite, inscribed the names of the plaques that had been lost and then shipped the finished product in pieces back to St Louis. By the middle of September, the last piece of granite was installed and ready for the dedication that was scheduled on September 30, 2012, the final day of the year long grant and National Gold Star Mothers Day. Many special people attended the ceremony including UnderSecretary Steve Muro who flew in from Washington DC. This project was a favorite of his and it was later learned that he was instrumental in getting the project approved in Washington DC. The total cost of the memorial was $355,000 and was completely paid for by the time of the dedication. Two Medal of Honor winners are part of the memorial – Captain Alex Skinker and Sargent Fred Stockham. The Gold Star Mothers are the heroes in this story having created the original Court of Honor and American Legion Post 15 is proud to preserve the Gold Star Mothers’ St. Louis tribute. The monument is now fully restored and resides not only in St. Louis, but in a National Cemetery.