Veteran graves now identified on Marion GIS map
MARION - The City of Marion has marked veteran graves on its GIS map, providing information on veterans' time of service and branch, along with other pieces of history such as their obituaries where applicable.
Marking which graves belong to veterans aims to help easily identify them for observances such as this weekend's placing of American flags at each grave for Memorial Day.
Starting 8 a.m. Saturday, volunteers with the Marion VFW Post 1301 and American Legion Post 147 will distribute flags to each of more than 2,500 graves at Rose Hill, Maplewood and Oddfellow cemeteries.
G. Patrick Murphy, retired federal judge and Marine Corps veteran from Marion, said that institutional knowledge over the decades has been lost as veterans who have volunteered for decades age out.
"Over the years, people have died, families have disappeared, many graves have not been cared for and the appropriate markers have become unreadable," Murphy said.
A few months ago, city leaders came together to resolve this by mapping out veteran graves, creating digital maps accessible on the city's website and mobile app and physical map that volunteers will use to place flags.
"I thought perhaps it would take several years to do this, but remarkably we have completed, we think, all of the work required at the Marion cemetery," Murphy said.
John Fletcher, another Marion resident, said the bulk of the effort came from Harry and Dorothy Boyd, whose project to record every veteran buried in Williamson County from the Revolutionary War to 2014 provided the backbone for this Marion project.
"They had all that information on flash drives, and the technology staff was able to scan them and upload them into the cemetery's GIS system," Fletcher said.
Additional research has led to around 300 more veteran being identified that were not previously, allowing more servicemen and women to be honored for the first time.
"Through the traditional walkthrough, they should be putting down at least 300 more flags this year just because of the work of Harry and Dorothy, and us getting it into the city system," Fletcher said.
While most holidays like the Fourth of July and Veterans Day are about celebrating, Murphy said Memorial Day is about observance and honoring the memory of those who have died, whether in service or in civilian life.
"It's not about any of us that are still alive," Murphy said. "We're recognizing and giving respect to those people on whose shoulders we all live. That's just the decent thing to do."
As veterans continue to age and the ever-reliable VFW and Legion populations shrink, Murphy said this project is essential to carrying that mission forward by making it more accessible for everyone.
"Now that we've got this volunteer help with us and the means whereby they can identify all these graves, we think we can keep this going to for years to come as the rest of us pass on," Murphy said. "It's very important work, and I think we've made a big step forward."
Copyright 2026 Tribune Content Agency. All Rights Reserved.