For the second year in a row, Alamance County’s annual Memorial Day ceremony took place indoors as rain drenched the event’s usual venue in front of the Judge J.B. Allen, Jr. Court House on West Elm Street in Graham.
Yet, the dreary forecast didn’t discourage the scores of foul weather patriots who squeezed into one of the building’s downstairs courtrooms for this year’s solemnities.
Sponsored by Alamance County’s War Memorial Committee, Monday’s event featured most of the usual mainstays, such as the presentation of wreaths, a ceremonial color guard, and a rifle salute (which necessarily took place outside the courthouse).
[Story continues below photos from the event.]
Memorial Day ceremony at J.B. Allen, Jr. Court House in Graham
One change from the regular program was the membership of the color guard – which, for the first time, was drawn from the Junior ROTC at Western High School, rather than the local sheriff’s department.
In the meantime, musical accompaniment for the event was provided by band members from Southeast High School, whose director Dillon Hatley was invited into the courtroom to take a bow at the start of the ceremony.
Meanwhile, Jimmy Cartner and his daughter Hillary Cartner-Ambrose performed a couple of patriotic duets to bookend a traditional roll call of service members who died during the past year.
This year, a total of 288 names were read out during roll call. At the same time, photos of these same individuals bedecked a series of artificial fir trees that stood both inside the courtroom and in the court building’s main lobby.
David Carter, the ceremony’s emcee, explained that these “trees of valor” were new to the ceremony although not to Alamance County – where they’ve been on display at the Alamance Crossing shopping center.
