TOPEKA — A First Infantry Division brass band played while people laid gold roses before a memorial wreath on the south lawn of the Kansas Statehouse on Thursday to honor family members who died while serving their country.
The third annual Gold Star families ceremony honored the more than 6,500 Kansas families that lost loved ones who died in combat.
“When a person joins the military, the entire family embarks on that journey with them,” said Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, whose father was a career Army officer who served in World War II and earned a Purple Heart after being injured in Korea. “They all recognize the inherent risks that come with the duty to protect our country and our liberty. None of them wants to become a member of the Gold Star family.”
The designation has origins that date back to World War I, when families would fly banners with a blue star, indicating that an active-duty service member was part of their household. The blue star would be substituted for a gold one if the family member died while serving.
The makeup of a Gold Star family has changed over time as service members are more frequently adults rather than young draftees, said George Pogge, a veteran who attended Thursday’s ceremony.
“The military has become more of a family organization rather than an organization that you have to join after high school and then get out and come home,” he said.
Instead of sons and daughters, the Gold Star families of modern times frequently honor husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, and parents, said Pogge, of Jefferson County.
He attended Wednesday’s ceremony to remember those he’s lost and to support the Gold Star families.
Gary Jackson attended to remember his son-in-law, who was killed in Iraq, and friends who served alongside him in Vietnam.
Marcia Cottrell, of Lyndon, attended in honor of her cousin, who died in Vietnam.
In 2022, the Legislature took measures to approve the Gold Star family memorial monument that was at the center of Thursday’s ceremony on the southern grounds of the Statehouse.
Looking forward to the 2025 legislative session, Kelly, who spoke at Thursday’s ceremony, said she supported expanding Medicaid, which she believes could directly benefit veterans and their families.
“There are a number of our veterans and certainly families of our veterans, or of our deceased, who would be eligible, and that would make a tremendous difference in their lives and the lives of their children,” she told Kansas Reflector.
Gold Star mother’s and family’s day has taken place on the last Sunday in September since 1936. This year, it falls on Sept. 29.
“Above all,” Kelly said, “Gold Star family’s day is an important reminder that the cost of freedom is enormous and enduring, even long after the battles to protect it have ended.”
Kansas Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: info@kansasreflector.com. Follow Kansas Reflector on Facebook and Twitter.
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