Latest news with #LibertyMemorial
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
‘He was a part of our lives:' Loved ones memorialized in granite at KC's WWI Museum
An engraved heart helped Martha Burt spot the newly installed brick honoring her late husband, Gene, out of the almost 10,000 memorial blocks at the National World War I Museum and Memorial. Martha's three adult daughters surprised her with the brick to honor their dad, a longtime museum volunteer. The group braved a persistent drizzle to attend the Memorial Day dedication for new engraved granite blocks on the museum's Walk of Honor. The family remembered Gene Burt putting on his blue volunteer shirt and stopping for QuikTrip donuts on his way to the museum every week. A history lover, Gene had volunteered more than 2,000 hours before he died of cancer last spring. Some of Gene's fellow 'Thursday group' volunteers attended his funeral. Martha teared up sharing her memories of her husband telling visitors about the poppies in the museum lobby. 'He loved the people coming in and saying something to them to help their stay, and help them enjoy it,' she said. The Walk of Honor dedication allowed the Burt family to remember their father and husband. 'He was a part of our lives. The biggest part,' Martha said. Civilians, like Gene Burt, and veterans alike are honored on the Liberty Memorial's Walk of Honor. Approximately 300 people attended the dedication ceremony, which took place in the auditorium and spilled out into a full overflow room. The ceremony included speeches and a slideshow of each person honored on the 97 granite bricks, which start at $300. People come to the Liberty Memorial solely to see their loved ones on the bricks, said Karis Erwin, vice president of marketing and guest service for the museum. She spoke of a family member attending Monday's event, which helped bring a ceremonial end to his time serving in the Vietnam War. 'For him to have an opportunity to honor that commitment that he made so many decades ago, and to have a room full of people celebrating that, I think is really great closure for him,' Erwin said. Memorial Day marks the beginning of the busy months for the National World War I Museum and Memorial. During the summer, the museum sees many out of town visitors, after three seasons of mostly school groups and local visitors. This year local visitors will get a summer deal. From June 1 through Sept. 1, Kansas City area residents can purchase discounted $10 tickets that grant access to the main museum, special exhibits and the Liberty Memorial observation deck.
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
White nationalist hate group rallies in Kansas City Memorial Day weekend
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Members of the Patriot Front rallied at the Liberty Memorial in Kansas City on Saturday. Pictures show the group with masks on, carrying various flags and shields. Some had turned the United States flag upside down, others carried the Betsy Ross flag from the 1700's and a few members carried the Confederate battle flag. The Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights non-profit organization, says that Patriot Front is a 'white nationalist hate group'. It continues to say that the group split from Vanguard America, one of the groups involved in the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Residents frustrated after two shootings in Kansas City neighborhood The National WWI Museum issued the following statement on Sunday: The National WWI Museum and Memorial is aware of yesterday's gathering on the public grounds surrounding our institution. We respect First Amendment protections for peaceful assembly and free speech and want to be unequivocally clear that the views expressed by this group do not represent or align with our values. We stand firmly against hatred, bigotry and divisiveness in all forms. Our grounds include public park space where various groups may gather, but such use should never be interpreted as our endorsement of any particular viewpoint. The Museum and Memorial remains committed to serving as a place of learning, reflection and unity for all visitors This Memorial Day, as we do every day, we honor the lives of those who died in defense of liberty and freedom. This Memorial, a beacon for democracy, reminds us all of core values that seek to unite us and create a just and lasting peace for all nations. Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas posted on Facebook on Saturday, saying, 'While the First Amendment provides the right to bring any message to Kansas City, we know that our diversity, our welcoming community, and our respect for the rights of all reject whatever hate and cowardice come our way.' It's unclear why the group chose Kansas City for their demonstration. We reached out to The Kansas City Police Department for more information, and to ask if they had advance knowledge of the event, they did not return our request for comment in time for this story. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Kit Bond eulogized as inspirational leader, political innovator at Missouri memorial service
Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe and First Lady Claudia Kehoe take a moment by the casket of Christopher S. 'Kit' Bond during a memorial service Tuesday the Missouri State Capitol rotunda (Annelise Hanshaw/Missouri Independent). Missouri said goodbye Tuesday to Kit Bond, the Republican former governor, U.S. Senator and auditor who spent 34 of his 86 years in public office. During a memorial service in the Missouri Capitol Building's rotunda, Bond was eulogized by John Ashcroft, the Republican who succeeded him in office as governor, and U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Democrat who said the two formed a lifelong friendship during Bond's first term as governor from 1973 to 1977. 'Talk is cheap, but doing takes the devotion of one's lifetime,' Ashcroft said. 'Bond was a doer.' Cleaver said he first met Bond as a civil rights leader, and the friendship was cemented during his time as mayor of Kansas City and when he was elected to Congress in 2004. On Cleaver's arrival in Washington, Bond, starting his fourth term in the Senate, held a reception for the freshman Democrat. They worked together to restore the Liberty Memorial, obtain funds for a new courthouse and find money for bridge and road projects, Cleaver said. 'I will be delighted for the rest of my life to have worked with Kit Bond,' Cleaver said. The hour-long ceremony also featured prayers from former U.S. Sen. Jack Danforth, an Episcopal priest who, along with Bond and Ashcroft, were the young Republican leaders who broke a Democratic monopoly on state offices in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Bond's casket will remain in the rotunda until 1 p.m. Wednesday, when he will be taken to St. Louis for a family memorial service and private interment. Bond died May 13 and was survived by his wife of 22 years, Linda Holwick Bond, and his son, Samuel. Bond grew up in Mexico, Missouri, the grandson of the founder of A.P. Green Industries, a fireclay manufacturer and a major employer at the time. He attended a boarding school in Massachusetts, Princeton University as an undergraduate and studied law in Virginia, practicing law in Washington, D.C., until he returned home in 1967. Bond lost a bid for Congress in 1968 before winning the race for state auditor in 1970. When he was elected governor in 1972 at the age of 33, he was — and remains — the youngest person ever to win the state's highest office. In 2020, veteran journalist Phill Brooks, who covered both Bond administrations for KMOX and the University of Missouri School of Journalism, wrote that Bond won office in 1972 by campaigning on a platform to restrict special interest influence in government. 'His victory empowered him to lead the successful, bipartisan legislative effort for campaign and lobbyist disclosure requirements, as well as the state's 'Sunshine Law' requiring public access to government meetings and records,' Brooks wrote. In his first term, Bond also won passage of stronger consumer protection laws and, in 1975, issued an executive order rescinding former Gov. Lilburn Boggs' 1838 order that Mormons 'must be exterminated or driven from the state.' Bond also reorganized state government, taking it from 96 independent agencies to 14 state departments organized along lines of responsibility such as health, education and corrections. After losing a bid for re-election, Bond made a political comeback in 1980, winning the governor's office again. He won his seat in the U.S. Senate in 1986 and was re-elected three times. The turnout Tuesday, which filled the rotunda for the 45-minute memorial service, included former governors Bob Holden and Mike Parson, former U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, people who had worked with Bond in Jefferson City and Washington, and current officials elected since he left office in 2010. Warren Erdman, executive vice president-administration and corporate affairs for Kansas City Southern railway, was Bond's chief of staff in his U.S. Senate office and an aide to Bond in his second term as governor. He said Bond embodied the spirit of the early Pilgrims, who founded a society, described by John Winthrop in 1630, as one of 'communal charity, affection and unity.' 'Kit loved and practiced these beliefs throughout his lifetime and in his public service,' Erdmann said. 'They were foundational to his approach to public service.' In his second term as governor, Bond had to deal with state budget shortfalls as the economy weakened. He promoted and won passage of a $600 million construction bond issue to boost employment and renew state facilities. As a senator, Bond became known for his work on the Senate Intelligence Committee, his commitment to national defense and, as illustrated by buildings like the Christopher S. Bond Life Sciences Center at the University of Missouri, the source of earmarked federal funds for local projects. When his son was born, Bond was introduced to the program for parental guidance of education that became known as Parents as Teachers. 'I think that Parents as Teachers is Missouri's greatest export,' Bond said in an oral history interview in 2014. 'We believe that when you advocate Parents as Teachers, you are telling people across the country that Parents as Teachers is Missouri's greatest export.' In that same interview, Bond said 'the job of governor was one of the most satisfying jobs I've ever had.' Bond's 1972 victory energized new leaders to go into public service, Ashcroft said in his eulogy. 'Over and over again. Kit launched the careers of young people, talented, committed, dedicated people who later, after appointment, found opportunity beckoning them to achievement levels they had not anticipated,' Ashcroft said. Danforth, who has parted ways with Republicans over many issues in recent years, said Bond made state government better and enjoyed doing it. 'He elevated the quality of government,' Danforth said. 'And besides that, in his day, politics was fun. I don't think it's fun anymore.'
Associated Press
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Associated Press
Four-term US Sen. Christopher 'Kit' Bond remembered for training a generation of Missouri leaders
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Christopher 'Kit' Bond, a Republican who was Missouri's youngest governor before serving four terms in the U.S. Senate, was remembered Tuesday as a beloved statesman who helped train a generation of leaders. The Missouri State Highway Patrol escorted his body from St. Louis, where he died last week at the age of 86, to the Missouri Capitol in Jefferson City, where hundreds of people gathered for a memorial service. Bond is to lie in state through Wednesday so members of the public can pay their respects. 'Over and over again, Kit launched the careers of young people, talented, committed, dedicated people who later, after appointment, found opportunity beckoning them to achievement levels they hadn't anticipated,' said John Ashcroft, who was a governor, senator and attorney general under President George W. Bush. 'Kit was a person of both individual and governmental integrity. I have no recollection of anytime where Kit failed to live up to his commitments.' As a member of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, Bond secured federal money for big and small projects in Missouri, scoffing at government watchdog groups that considered him a master of pork-barrel spending. Democratic U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver recalled that while he was serving as mayor of Kansas City, a monument to honor World War I veterans known as Liberty Memorial had fallen into disrepair. He likened the 217-foot (66-meter) tall structure that was built after a burst of postwar patriotism to the Leaning Tower of Pisa. He said Bond stepped in with federal dollars to help restore it. 'Working together as friends was the propellant that allowed us, with others, to alter the landscape of Kansas City,' Cleaver said. Early in his career, Bond was considered a political wunderkind. When he took office at age 33 as Missouri's youngest governor, he was also the state's first Republican chief executive in about three decades and garnered consideration as a vice presidential candidate. His early success stalled when he lost a reelection bid, but he later rebounded to win another term as governor before being elected to the Senate in 1986 and eventually becoming the patriarch of the Missouri Republican Party. Testaments to Bond's longevity in the public arena are stamped across Missouri. A federal courthouse in Jefferson City and a life sciences center at the University of Missouri-Columbia are named after him. A highway bridge crossing the Missouri River in Hermann and one in Kansas City also carry his name. 'Kit Bond was an exceptional person who was blessed with many talents,' said former U.S. Sen. John Danforth. 'He was very smart. He was highly educated. He had boundless energy. He wanted for nothing. He could have clung on to what was his and lived comfortably only for himself. But that was not what he did. He invested his talents, put them at risk, and he produced such a great return to the state.' ___ Hollingsworth reported from Kansas City, Missouri.
