The dedication of the Braille Flag Monument and Honoring Our First Patriots Monument will take place at 2 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 14 at the Florida National Cemetery in Bushnell.
The monuments have been made possible thanks to the hard work of the local chapters of the Daughters of the American Revolution. The John Bartram Chapter of the Villages, along with the Lake-Sumter Regents Council of DAR chapters, have taken the lead in this effort.
DAR chapter members from Mary Ellen Robertson (Leesburg), Ocklawaha (Mt. Dora), Puc Puggy (The Villages), Tomoka (Clermont) and the now disbanded Bertha Hereford Hall will be in attendance. Florida State Regent, Cindy Addison will be our honored guest. Special guests will include World War II veteran Irving Locker, Korean War veteran retired Major General John McWaters, and retired Staff Sargent Walter Peters, a Vietnam War Veteran and President of the American Braille Flag Project. Another special guest is decorated Marine veteran of the conflicts in the Middle East, Dex Conrad, VP of Cole Engineering Services, Inc. in Orlando, who is the major donor of the Patriot Monument. The Marine Corp League South Lake Detachment 1120 will lead the Color Guard procession. In addition, we have invited the Sons of the American Revolution, multiple veteran organizations, Lions Clubs, along with several other special organizations from around the tri-county area.
In 2019, the John Bartram Chapter proposed placing the “Braille Flag Monument” at the Florida National Cemetery. The monument provides the visually impaired veterans the ability to feel and “read” the Pledge of Allegiance embedded in the flag’s stripes and “see” the American Flag that they love, honor and respect. There are over 158,000 blind or visually impaired veterans in the United States. The Braille Flag Monument design and placement was approved by the Department of Veterans Affairs and the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution in 2020. Unfortunately, erection and dedication were postponed because of Covid restrictions and other cemetery issues.
In 2022, the John Bartram Chapter proposed placing the Revolutionary War monument “Honoring Our First Patriots” at the Florida National Cemetery. The monument has images of our nation’s fight for independence etched onto black granite. Our chapter invited the other five DAR chapters in our area to add a side panel image of “Forgotten Patriots” to our monument. Since Florida was not one of the original thirteen colonies, the state has very few Revolutionary War gravesites. Our research located two cenotaph headstones placed in the Florida National Cemetery of Revolutionary War Soldiers, Pvt Benjamin Latimer of the Maryland Militia and Sgt Benjamin Shirley of the Continental Army. The monument design and placement were approved by the Department of Veterans Affairs and the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution.
The National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (NSDAR) founded in 1890 and headquartered in Washington D.C., is a non-profit, non-political volunteer women’s organization dedicated to promoting patriotism, preserving American history, and securing America’s future through better education for children. It was incorporated by an Act of the United States Congress in 1896.
As one of the most inclusive genealogical societies in the country, DAR has more than 190,000 members in 3,000 chapters across the United States and the world. Since its founding , DAR has admitted more than 1,000,000 women who can prove lineal descent from a patriot of the American Revolution. The state of Florida has 111 chapters and over 11,000 members.
