Mount Vernon Couple Pays Tribute to Vietnam Veterans

Editor's Note: Article submitted by reader Diane Nees.

Early this past summer, Darlene Spurlock, the Director of Wesley Preschool and Kindergarten, applied to be a name reader at the 30th anniversary of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall. She was so excited when she got her acceptance letter along with the 30 names she would be reading. 

The amazing thing about this story is that Darlene personally knew one person whose name appears on the Wall - and that person's name appeared in the list of names she was to read! The organizers of this special Veteran's Day event had no knowledge of this friendship. After practicing reading these names for several months (even calling a family in Indiana to verify the pronunciation of one of these last names!), Darlene and her husband Virgil Spurlock went to the Wall early Thursday morning to read the list of names. Darlene ended up reading 150 names and Virgil read 120 names. This event is sponsored by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund.