The Veterans Memorial of Boone County was conceived in 1995 when H.B. Deatherage, a Viet Nam veteran, was deeply moved by the fact that veterans in Boone County had no place to heal wounds and memories of war.
Veterans after returning from military duty appeared to have been forgotten. He vowed to build a Boone County memorial to honor and remember those who served and those who gave the ultimate sacrifice so that we, the living, may have and enjoy the freedom we so much take for granted.
As H.B. chased his dream, the project expanded to include all, and especially, Boone County veterans who gave their all.
The names and etchings were brought to the forefront with beautiful black granite, making up the memorial honoring WWI, WWII, Korea, Viet Nam, and the most recent “War on Terror.” The sacred ground has six fully lit flagpoles, including ground lights. It also has a Congressional Medal of Honor granite bench honoring Charles Fleek, who was killed in Viet Nam, and four additional granite benches.
An early supporter of the Boone County Veterans’ Memorial was former Mayor Evelyn Kalb. Mayor Kalb donated ground at the current Florence Government Center for the project. No government money was ever received for the project.
The list of names for the memorial was researched by H.B. Deatherage, Founder of the memorial, using resources in Frankfort, Kentucky, Military Affairs. After many visits to Frankfort going through outdated military records, and checking, double checking, triple checking, then checking again, a list of names in this meticulous process for accuracy was complete. What began as a list of 15 names now has changed to a total of 78 names.
