MORGANTOWN — Oak Grove Cemetery in Morgantown has been the final resting place for fallen soldiers from across the region dating back to the Revolutionary War.
Brenda Shinkovich feels that everyone buried at Oak Grove who wore the uniform in war or peacetime deserves a wreath on their grave.
Warriors such as Charles DeMao, a career soldier who was felled by a sniper’s bullet in 1944, as the fighting in World War II was finally starting to wane.
He and his four brothers, the sons of Italian immigrant parents, marched off to defend a new homeland.
And Peter Borsay, who died in a friendly fire incident in Vietnam in 1969.
Borsay was 9 when his family fled their native Hungary and the Revolution in 1954. An academic on his way to earning a Ph.D., Borsay said no to a military deferment.
He wanted to stand up for the country that meant so much to him and his family, he said, when people asked him why he was going.
Sadly, said Shinkovich, a ranking member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, countless names of veterans and their stories there aren’t known.
“But we can at least pay our respects this way,” she said.
Which is where Wreaths Across America comes in.
The outreach organization in Maine provides wreaths for the graves of veterans in more than 1,400 cemeteries across the U.S. and overseas.
The organization works with many groups including the DAR’s Elizabeth Ludington Evans Hagans-Col. John Evans chapter in Morgantown and Monongalia County.
Wreathes will be placed in December for the holiday season at Oak Grove Cemetery, plus the two West Virginia National veterans cemeteries in Pruntytown and Grafton, in neighboring Taylor County.
Each wreath costs $15, Shinkovich said, and may be purchased either through the DAR or directly from Wreathes Across America.
To purchase locally, she said, make your check payable to Hagans-Evans Chapter, NSDAR, and designate “Wreaths Across America” in the memo line. The mailing address is: Vicky Shears, WAA DAR, 463 Cobun Ave., Morgantown, WV 26501.
For direct purchases from Wreaths Across America, please include the cemetery location number, WVOGMT, and the local DAR group ID number, WV0036P in the memo line, Shinkovich said. The mailing address is Wreathes Across America, P.O. Box 249, Colombia Falls, ME 04623.
Wreaths Across America also accepts purchases on donations online, she said. Visit https://
wreaths.fastport.com and remember to enter the group ID number (WV0036P), Shinkovich said.
Orders must be at the national office by Dec. 3 to be included in next month’s wreath-laying, she said.
“I’d hate to see a veteran go without a wreath,” said Shinkovich, who can trace her lineage back to Zackquill Morgan, the Revolutionary War veteran who founded Morgantown in 1785.
For her, it’s about history and heart.
“We must never forget our veterans,” she said.
“We must never forget their sacrifices, or the sacrifices their families made to keep all of us safe and free.”
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