A number of Memorial Day services and activities are scheduled in Linn County.
IOOF Cemetery in Lebanon is having a Memorial Day Ceremony @ 10 am on Monday, May 29.
Samaritan Evergreen Hospice invites participants to make handmade bouquets from 2 to 6 p.m. Thursday, May 25, at its location 4600 Evergreen Place SE, Albany. The event is free, and no registration is required. For more information, call (541) 812-4662.
The Albany Masonic Cemetery, 700 SW Broadway St., will be open during the weekend for a self-guided walking tour of notables. Some 50 yellow placards will be placed throughout the five-acre property recounting the lives of such prominent locals as Samuel Althouse (1825-1886), one of Albany’s earliest settlers; and Carol (Dirrett) Davis (1919-2014), director of the American Red Cross during the 1964 floods and the Vietnam War.
A series of services are set Monday, May 29, starting with a 9:30 a.m. ceremony at the Brownsville Pioneer Cemetery, 35707 Kirk Ave., Brownsville. Another follows at 10:30 a.m. at the Crawfordsville Union Cemetery, located south of Hwy. 228 and Brush Creek Road one mile east of Crawfordsville. A service is also scheduled for noon at the Gilliland Cemetery, 301-621 50th Ave., Sweet Home.
The Linn County Veterans Memorial Association is holding a veterans memorial service at 11 a.m. Tuesday, May 30, at Timber Linn Memorial Park, 900 Price Road SE, Albany.
The keynote speaker will be Nita Eggers, a former “Rosie the Riveter.” The service will also include the laying of 20 wreaths, including one for a Cold War veteran, a rifle salute, presentation of colors and a veterans flyover by civilian pilots at 11:45 a.m.
The Willamette Valley Concert Band, directed by Julie Buchert, will present a free Memorial Day concert at 4 p.m. at the LaSells Stewart Center on the OSU campus, 875 SW 26th Street, Corvallis.
Performing with the band will be The Heart of the Valley Children’s Choir, also directed by Julie Buchert.
The band will perform songs honoring military heroes of the past and present.
The approximately 60-member children’s choir will join the band to open the concert with “The Star Spangled Banner.”
Some of the other pieces will be “This Is My Country,” arranged by Jerry Brubaker, “The Stars And Stripes Forever,” by John Philip Sousa, and “All Is Calm,” By Robert W. Smith.
Xylophone artist Brendan Elliott will play Galop, from “The Comedians,” by Dmitri Kabelevsky.
The performance will be narrated and announced by Jason Caffarella, a musician and teacher in the Albany area.
The concert’s band director, Julie Buchert, a 1979 graduate of West Albany High School, taught band, choir, general music and other subjects for 30 years before retiring.
The band, with approximately 45 members, was created by Dr. Richard Sorenson in 1970. It has continuously performed since then, with a hiatus during the COVID pandemic.
Although the concert is free, donations, helping area music students attend the Mid-Valley Band camp this summer, will be appreciated.