Troy VFW plans open house Saturday to honor WWI veteran

Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 976 in Troy is set to hold an open house from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday that features the World War I memorabilia of the late Walter Ellis Gaultney, a resident of Collinsville and Troy who fought in France in 1918 as a soldier with the Army’s 11th Infantry Regiment, 5th Division.

The open house will have on display Gaultney’s uniform and his medals. The centerpiece will be a portrait of Gaultney painted in 1918 by renowned artist Joseph Cummings Chase. Gaultney, who died in 1966 at age 70 after a long career as a railroad worker, was chosen for the portrait as part of series of paintings Chase undertook to portray the “typical Doughboy” coming home after the Great War had ended.

In 1962, the Smithsonian Institution, in Washington, D.C. sponsored a major exhibition of the portraits of Gaultney and 49 other Doughboys who posed for Chase.

The Troy VFW is located at 123 W. Market St.

This story was originally published May 26, 2015 at 11:32 PM with the headline "Troy VFW plans open house Saturday to honor WWI veteran."