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Missouri’s National Guard Hall of Fame ready to launch in Kirksville
The National Guard’s 35th Brigade assisted along the Mississippi River in northeast Missouri’s Clarksville (May 31, 2019 photo courtesy of Missouri National Guard Twitter Page and Sgt. Christy Van Drunen)
Missouri National Guard Hall of Fame plans to celebrate its first class of inductees and welcome visitors to its new home in Kirksville on October 1, 2021.
John Sastry is the founder of the hall of fame and chairman of its five-member board. The project began when, as a guardsman who had served in the 128th Field Artillery Regiment based out of Kirksville, Sastry wanted to nominate a commanding officer and learned the honor did not exist in Missouri.
Last Civil War Veteran s Widow Dies Aged 101 Published January 6th, 2021 - 12:39 GMT
Helen Viola Jackson died on December 16, at the age of 101. (Facebook)
Highlights
Helen Viola Jackson died on December 16 at her Missouri nursing home aged 101.
The last known widow of a Civil War soldier has died at the age of 101, ending a remarkable life story that she had kept to herself for over 80 years.
When Maudie Hopkins of Arkansas died in 2008, it was believed that there were no known Civil War widows left in the nation.
Then, in December 2017, Helen Viola Jackson of Marshfield, Missouri, decided to tell her own astonishing tale.
Helen Viola Jackson died on December 16 at her Missouri nursing home aged 101
She had married Civil War veteran James Bolin in 1936, when he was 93
Bolin asked her to marry him because he wanted her to have his Union pension
Bolin died three years later, but Jackson never claimed his pension
Bolin s daughter threatened to ruin Jackson s reputation if she took the money
Jackson said that Bolin was a kindly man who wanted to help her financially
Jackson never remarried or had children, and devoted herself to her community