Gold Star Plaques - Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery - St. Louis County, MO - Missouri Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

County of memorial: St. Louis County
Location of memorial: Truman Dr., Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery, St. Louis County
Donated by: Rolio-Calcaterta American Legion Post #15
Erected by: National Society 1917 World War Registrars

Marker Text:

World War I
St. Louis Veterans
Court of Honor During World War I, Blue Stars were hung in the windows of home where a member of the family was serving in the armed forces. If an individual died in the war, the Blue Star was covered with a Gold Star signifying the sacrifice of one's life for their country. Around the country, groups of mothers who lost their children in the war emerged to show support for each other and for soldiers who returned from the war. In St. Louis, the "Gold Star Mothers" was led by Mrs. Frank de Garmo who also led the National Society of 1917 World War Registrars.

After the war, the St. Louis Gold Star Mothers and the National Society of 1917 World War Registrars organized an effort to honor their sons and daughters who died in service by promoting the building of the Gold Star Court of Honor. To that end, in cooperation of the parks department of the City of St. Louis, "Memory" trees were planted in the grassy medians of Kingshighway Boulevard beginning at Easton Avenue (now Martin Luther King Drive) on Arbor Day 1923. Later, eight-inch round bronze plaques were cast for each St. Louisian who perished in the war. The defisn contained a large star inscribed with the name, rank, outfit, cause of death, and branch of service of the person being memorialized. Beginning in 1926, a total of 1,185 plaques were placed flush with the ground in front of the memorial trees and at other location along Kingshighway as far as Florissant Avenue. Concurrently this section of Kingshighway was renamed Kingshighway Memorial Boulevard.

This landscaped traffic corridor composed of grass medians, trees and medallions and a flagpole survived from the 1920s until the 1960s when construction of the Mark Twain Expressway required the removal of the medians in the vicinity of Bircher Boulevard. At his time the city removed and stored more than 100 plaques. In the 1980s additional changes along Kingshighway threatened the remaining plaques. Member of the Rolio-Calcaterta American Legion Post 15 organized their ranks and colledted plaques that were still in the medians. Of the original 1,185 plaques, 752 were saved, restored and are incorporated in the memorial.

SOME DEEDS MUST NOT DIE,
SOME NAMES MUST NOT WITHER"
- motto of the National Society of
1917 World War Registrars

Web link: [Web Link] History of Mark: "The Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery Court of Honor is dedicated the lives and service of St. Louis area soldiers who died during the First World War Where most soldiers honored died in 1918, some of the death dates extend past the war's end to 1929. The memorial was dedicated in September of 2012 and is home to more than 700 gold stars. The gold stars were originally part of an installation along Kingshighway Avenue in St. Louis, but were moved to their new home at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery whent he highway was renovated. Some 1,185 of the original gold stars were not recovered from the Kingshighway site, but their names were inscribed along a memorial wall at the National Cemetery site." ~ Jefferson Barrack National Cemetery Additional point: Not Listed

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