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Submitted: 1/31/16 • Approved: 2/2/16 • Last Updated: 4/18/18 • R785840-G0-S3
For 15 years, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the American Legion, and the Korean War Veterans would honor the veterans buried at the Ozark Memorial Cemetery by posting flags on their graves before Memorial Day. But Mackey said these organizations kept missing some veterans’ graves, so he compiled the Veterans Grave Records which has every veteran’s name, rank, military branch, conflict, birth date, death date, and grave location. Mackey said there were originally thought to be around 600 veterans buried in the cemetery.
“And my family took it upon ourselves, my oldest daughter, Amanda Mackey, and my wife and I, each would take a section of notebook and we would walk the line and write down the graves. Instead of 600 graves, we found out there were over 800 graves here.”
Mackey estimates that he and his family spent up to 400 hours working on the records book over the months of June, July, and August. Mackey, who is a pastor by profession and a U.S. Navy Veteran, credits much of the work to his daughter, Amanda Mackey, a senior at Branson High School.
“It became kind of interesting going through and seeing everybody’s names. When you’re just kind of walking around the cemetery alone writing down people’s names, you kind of start talking to them sometimes thanking them for their service even though they can’t hear you.”
Kevin Mackey says he hopes the book can be used for research.
“The information. I’m a big fan of information. For people doing research and things like that it’s a very valuable tool. For people that are doing genealogies, it’s something that is of much interest to them. Or simply people who are doing research on this area.”
Mackey donated copies of the 60-page Veterans Grave Records book to the Taney Hills Library in Branson, the Forsythe Library, the White River Historical Society, and the College of the Ozarks’ Lyons Memorial Library.
A veteran from every war since the Spanish-American War is buried in the Ozark Memorial Cemetery.
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Contributed on 1/31/16 by hawkinsdonna48
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Record #: 785840