Fairbury, Jefferson County set to unveil veterans memorial on Memorial Day

FAIRBURY, Neb. - Jefferson County and Fairbury are getting ready for a fitting event for a Memorial Day celebration.

On Monday afternoon, the town is set to unveil their new veterans memorial in the city park. Fairbury City Museum President Mick Suey has sponsored the project, that’s been in works for about a year.

“We will have local honor and color-guard presenting,” Suey said. “I’ve got two veterans who will help me put the program on and then we will do the unveiling of the wall and veterans statue.”

Suey tells News Channel Nebraska he got the idea for the memorial from his time at the museum as well as inspiration from other monuments and memorials across the state.

“Being at the museum, you start reading names and places of who they [veterans] were and where they served, where they were from,” Suey said. “When my son was playing baseball, I would travel to different communities and you’d see monuments similar to this one and I thought it was something Jefferson County needed.”

A unique piece of the monument is a rectangular plaque, with names of each town Jefferson County veterans called home -- some of which don’t even exist anymore.

“Jefferson County was founded by in 1856 and some of those communities don’t exist any longer,” Suey said. “But throughout their time span, there were men, sometimes women, who came from those communities and served. Wanted every community in Jefferson County honored.”

The memorial will sit in Fairbury’s city park, near the legion baseball field. Suey says the park was the perfect setting for the memorial, as it sits in an area that well represents Fairbury and Jefferson County.

“Fairbury is a very progressive town and we have a lot of nice things to offer,” Suey said. “To me, this was a no-brainer, and this area here is the perfect spot.”

The ceremony is set for 1:00 pm at the city park on Monday. Those attending are advised to bring chairs.