Introduction: In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry explores the history of Memorial Day with touching stories and photos. Melissa is a genealogist who has a website, americana-archives.com, and a Facebook group, New England Family Genealogy and History.

On Memorial Day in 1954 the Detroit News listed the 145 Greater Detroit soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines who had been reported dead or missing in the Korean War since the previous Memorial Day (the article called these “delayed reports on war casualties,” since the war ended on 27 July 1953). These brave men gave the ultimate sacrifice for their country: their lives.

An image of “The American Soldier” by Harvey Dunn appeared with the official list of soldiers compiled from official Defense Department releases.

The article was accompanied by this photo.

The photo caption reads:

Wife and son remember flier. Symbolic of Memorial Day all over the nation is this picture of Mrs. Adele Binsfield, 8033 Ohio, as she and her son, Robert, 11, place flowers at the grave of Lt. Rene Binsfield. Robert scarcely can remember his father, a Navy pilot, who was killed in a mid-air plane collision in Pacific combat in 1944. Mrs. Binsfield, a government civil service bookkeeper, now carries on with her memories and the comfort of her son. Lt. Binsfield was one of thousands of Detroit dead in five wars honored at cemetery ceremonies here today.

Mrs. Binsfield, born Adele Elizabeth Gluski to Leon Damazy Gluski and Frances (Mesch) Gluski, married Rene Binsfield, son of Henry Nicholas Binsfield (also spelled Binsfeld) and Marguerite (Mohr) Binsfield, on 22 August 1937. Besides their son Robert, the couple had a daughter, Patricia Joyce (Binsfield) Bohn.

Here is a photo of Rene with the men of his family. The photo is labeled 1936, but Louis Binsfield (identified as “Grandpa B”) died in 1932, which is probably the year when the photo was taken. In this photo we see, from left to right: (top row) John Joseph Binsfield; Peter Joseph Binsfield; Rene Binsfield; and Joseph Binsfield; (bottom row) Lucien Binsfield; Louis Binsfield; Henry Nicholas Binsfield (Rene’s father).

Another article published on that page in the the Detroit News was most moving: one authored by John C. Treen on the origin of the holiday entitled, “How Heartache Holiday Grew from Longing of Loved Ones.”

Treen writes:

Out of the blood of Gettysburg and Shiloh is distilled today one whole spirit that knows no blue or gray, no North or South.

Here is a photo of the Gettysburg Reunion (the “Great Reunion”) of July 1913, which commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. Confederate and Federal veterans clasp hands across the stone wall that marks the boundaries of the “Bloody Angle” made famous by Pickett’s Charge.

Here is another photo from the Gettysburg Reunion of July 1913, showing the North and South united that day, breaking bread together while they exchanged stories.

Four wars have washed away the hate of 1861 which set brother against brother. [Note: That was true in 1954; to date, the United States has fought in six major, large-scale wars.]

Bowed, bared heads at today’s flower-strewn graves in countless hallowed grounds give witness that American[s] stand united in honor and memory of those who gave their lives for their country.

Here is a scene from Arlington Cemetery on 30 May 1929: decorating the graves of those who made the supreme sacrifice in World War I.

And this honor, expressed sometimes with tears, sometimes with rolling drums and great parades, was not at a signal from the President of the United States or other great authority. This memorial was a thing that grew spontaneously from an individual longing and heartache.

The 1960 Memorial Day parade in New York went up Riverside Drive to Grant’s tomb. In this photo, spectators are viewing the parade from 86th Street looking East.

A soldier or sailor, a husband, father, brother went away. He came back, if ever, under the flag of his country.

During the 1937 Memorial Day tribute in New Bedford, Massachusetts, Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) Commander George N. Alden of Post 190 was the only Civil War veteran able to take an active part in the exercises. He is shown in this photo addressing the gathering.

And at the revered place he lies, a solitary plot in a cemetery or under a great tomb, there today Americans bring flowers, the music of bands, the thunder of guns and the roar of planes, emitting that gratitude for his great sacrifice and that determined will that his life shall not have been given in vain.

Here is a photo of a 1941 Memorial Day tribute in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord, Massachusetts.

All over America are parades. Tanks thunder through metropolitan streets. Troops and uniformed members of patriotic organizations march. Planes dive overhead, scattering roses instead of bombs.

This is a photo of the Junior Red Cross float in the 1921 Memorial Day Parade in Los Angeles County, California.

This is Memorial Day, which grew only from the pride that a man could fight for his right and the longing that his fight to the death could achieve peace.

Here is a photo of the 2018 Memorial Day Parade on Constitution Avenue, Washington, D.C.

And out of this single pride and loneliness around a solitary grave grew the common realization that this great patriotic zeal should be shared.

This touching photo shows preparation for the 1925 Memorial Day tribute in Cranston, Rhode Island.

There are at least a dozen places, including Detroit, which claim to have held the first Memorial Day service in honor of the war dead.

Four Michigan women, the wife and two daughters of the late Rev. Frank W. May, of Vicksburg, and Mrs. Sarah Nicholas Evans, of Hudson, were credited with holding a memorial service for Union veterans in 1862.

In 1865 a fund was created to establish a war memorial for Civil War soldiers.

To be continued…

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Note on the header image: the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier located in Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia. Credit: Raul654; Wikimedia Commons.