Fairfield’s Memorial Day service dedicated to Jim Kennedy

FAIRFIELD — In the days leading up to Memorial Day, it wasn’t clear whether Fairfield would host a ceremony to mark the occasion.

Jim Kennedy, a retired Marine who was active in the Veterans of Foreign Wars and who had organized many Memorial Day services through the years, died in February at age 89. No one had picked up the ball to organize a service until Thursday night when Fairfield Mayor Connie Boyer was on the phone with her friend, Sally Johnston.

Boyer said she normally attends the Memorial Day ceremony in Central Park, but when she learned from Johnston no service had been planned this year, she took matters into her own hands.

“I thought, we’ve just got to put something together,” Boyer said.

Boyer called Fairfield resident Dave Eastburn, a retired Marine, to review all the parts of the service — lining up a singer for the national anthem, a pastor to give the invocation, students to read poems and a guest speaker.

Luckily, Boyer was able to find people to fill all those roles. The last pieces fell into place on Saturday when Fred Hucke and Francis Thicke agreed to play taps at the end of the ceremony.

Scott Vaughan and a team of volunteers put up hundreds of American flags early Friday morning in Central Park. The Memorial Day service was dedicated to Kennedy for his years of hard work organizing it. His wife, Rose, was recognized during the service and sat in the Ron Prill Bandstand with that day’s speakers.

After the ceremony, the public was invited to the Carnegie Historical Museum’s grand reopening after being closed during the pandemic. During the closure, the museum’s board and volunteers took the opportunity to renovate several exhibits and create new ones. Among the exhibits was a Marine uniform that belonged to Jim Kennedy.

Kennedy served as a corporal during the Korean War. Rose said he worked in radio communication and was on guard during the prisoner-exchange between the two sides at the end of the war. Rose said she was honored that the Memorial Day service was dedicated to his memory.

“He loved putting the flags up,” Rose said. “Memorial Day and Veterans Day were very special to him.”

Rose said Jim made arrangements with the museum to display his uniform a few years ago.

“It’s better than having it sit at home in a suitcase,” she said.

Rose recounted that, for a Halloween party years ago, she wore Jim’s Marine uniform and Jim went in a long dress, which cracked up everybody at the party.

Tom Kennedy, son of Rose and Jim, was the one who came up with the idea of putting his dad’s uniform on display after noticing the museum had other military uniforms on display, but none from the Marines.

During Monday’s service, the hundreds of people in attendance were welcomed to the ceremony with the singing of the national anthem courtesy of 2020 Fairfield High School graduate Megan Higgins, who later sang God Bless America. The Rev. Danny Cary of Hopewell Church in Blakesburg gave the invocation. Maharishi School student Dominic Dupoux read the poem “Memorial Day” by C.W. Johnson. High school student James Hopton read Gen. John Logan’s order establishing Memorial Day in 1868, initially known as Decoration Day.

Kyle Larson, a 2009 graduate of Fairfield High School, read President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. Larson will soon start basic training in the Army National Guard, where he plans to become a combat medic. Larson said it was fitting he got to read the Gettysburg Address since he’s visited Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and saw a Civil War battle re-enactment there.

Fairfield Police Officer Brian Burnett, a 15-year veteran of the military who has been deployed three times, was the featured speaker. He said those who gathered Monday were there because Memorial Day has touched them all in some way. He thanked the volunteers who put up the flags in the park, and said it leaves him “speechless” to see so many people decorate the graves of fallen soldiers.