BERNARD S. SWEENEY, DECORATED GRAVES HONORED MEMORIES OF WORLD WAR II VETERANS WITH FLAGS, CROSSES
Somebody else is going to have to pay homage to the memories of World War II veterans on Memorial Day this year.
For more than 30 years, Bernard S. Sweeney spent his vacation weeks making the rounds of Greater Cleveland cemeteries to place American flags and his homemade plastic foam crosses on the graves of his fallen buddies.
In 1987, a Plain Dealer photographer captured the World War II veteran in Holy Cross Cemetery placing a flag at the grave of one of his buddies.
Mr. Sweeney, who was 73, learned he had cancer Dec. 29. He died March 29 at St. Alexis Hospital.
He was born in Cleveland and was a resident of Newburgh Heights, where he lived with his wife, Audrey, to whom he had been married 45 years.
He was employed in the main offices of the old Cleveland Transit System (now the Regional Transit Authority) for 10 years and had retired in 1987 from Day-Glo Color Corp., where he was the traffic control manager and a 27-year employee.
He served with the U.S. Army Air Corps and spent his tour of duty in Anchorage, Alaska.
Knowing that the ranks of the men who fought in that war were getting smaller as death claimed them, and that many were virtually forgotten, he set out to honor them by the simple, heartfelt placing of the poppy-decorated crosses beside their headstones.
As he knelt at each grave, the tall, white-haired man whispered a prayer, stood and saluted.
In the late 1940s, he was instrumental in starting the Michael Slatsky Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 7576, later merged with Post 5801.
He had served as quartermaster and post commander of 5801, and at his death was adjutant. Among his accomplishments there, he started a boys' unit of the post.
Recognition of his remembrances of the men with whom he had served came from the Department of the Army-Ohio Army National Guard in March 1990 as a result of The Plain Dealer story.
The Certificate of Achievement was signed by Maj. Gen. Ronald Bowman and cites Sweeney's "dedication in remembering the loved ones who gave their lives for our beloved country" and for "instilling patriotism into every one of us."
In addition to his wife, Mr. Sweeney is survived by daughter, Bridget Ann of Cleveland; sons, Kevin of Newburgh Heights, Terrence of Parma and Brian of Newburgh Heights; and seven grandchildren.
Services will be tomorrow at 9:15 a.m. at Hopko funeral home, 6020 Broadview Rd., Parma, followed by a funeral Mass at 10 a.m. at St. John Nepomucene Church, 4906 Fleet Ave.
Burial will be at Holy Cross Cemetery.
Plain Dealer - Thursday, April 1, 1993
Army Veteran - Enlistment Date: 4/14/1942
age 73
Contributor: LindaC (48110750)
Somebody else is going to have to pay homage to the memories of World War II veterans on Memorial Day this year.
For more than 30 years, Bernard S. Sweeney spent his vacation weeks making the rounds of Greater Cleveland cemeteries to place American flags and his homemade plastic foam crosses on the graves of his fallen buddies.
In 1987, a Plain Dealer photographer captured the World War II veteran in Holy Cross Cemetery placing a flag at the grave of one of his buddies.
Mr. Sweeney, who was 73, learned he had cancer Dec. 29. He died March 29 at St. Alexis Hospital.
He was born in Cleveland and was a resident of Newburgh Heights, where he lived with his wife, Audrey, to whom he had been married 45 years.
He was employed in the main offices of the old Cleveland Transit System (now the Regional Transit Authority) for 10 years and had retired in 1987 from Day-Glo Color Corp., where he was the traffic control manager and a 27-year employee.
He served with the U.S. Army Air Corps and spent his tour of duty in Anchorage, Alaska.
Knowing that the ranks of the men who fought in that war were getting smaller as death claimed them, and that many were virtually forgotten, he set out to honor them by the simple, heartfelt placing of the poppy-decorated crosses beside their headstones.
As he knelt at each grave, the tall, white-haired man whispered a prayer, stood and saluted.
In the late 1940s, he was instrumental in starting the Michael Slatsky Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 7576, later merged with Post 5801.
He had served as quartermaster and post commander of 5801, and at his death was adjutant. Among his accomplishments there, he started a boys' unit of the post.
Recognition of his remembrances of the men with whom he had served came from the Department of the Army-Ohio Army National Guard in March 1990 as a result of The Plain Dealer story.
The Certificate of Achievement was signed by Maj. Gen. Ronald Bowman and cites Sweeney's "dedication in remembering the loved ones who gave their lives for our beloved country" and for "instilling patriotism into every one of us."
In addition to his wife, Mr. Sweeney is survived by daughter, Bridget Ann of Cleveland; sons, Kevin of Newburgh Heights, Terrence of Parma and Brian of Newburgh Heights; and seven grandchildren.
Services will be tomorrow at 9:15 a.m. at Hopko funeral home, 6020 Broadview Rd., Parma, followed by a funeral Mass at 10 a.m. at St. John Nepomucene Church, 4906 Fleet Ave.
Burial will be at Holy Cross Cemetery.
Plain Dealer - Thursday, April 1, 1993
Army Veteran - Enlistment Date: 4/14/1942
age 73
Contributor: LindaC (48110750)
BERNARD S. SWEENEY, DECORATED GRAVES HONORED MEMORIES OF WORLD WAR II VETERANS WITH FLAGS, CROSSES
Somebody else is going to have to pay homage to the memories of World War II veterans on Memorial Day this year.
For more than 30 years, Bernard S. Sweeney spent his vacation weeks making the rounds of Greater Cleveland cemeteries to place American flags and his homemade plastic foam crosses on the graves of his fallen buddies.
In 1987, a Plain Dealer photographer captured the World War II veteran in Holy Cross Cemetery placing a flag at the grave of one of his buddies.
Mr. Sweeney, who was 73, learned he had cancer Dec. 29. He died March 29 at St. Alexis Hospital.
He was born in Cleveland and was a resident of Newburgh Heights, where he lived with his wife, Audrey, to whom he had been married 45 years.
He was employed in the main offices of the old Cleveland Transit System (now the Regional Transit Authority) for 10 years and had retired in 1987 from Day-Glo Color Corp., where he was the traffic control manager and a 27-year employee.
He served with the U.S. Army Air Corps and spent his tour of duty in Anchorage, Alaska.
Knowing that the ranks of the men who fought in that war were getting smaller as death claimed them, and that many were virtually forgotten, he set out to honor them by the simple, heartfelt placing of the poppy-decorated crosses beside their headstones.
As he knelt at each grave, the tall, white-haired man whispered a prayer, stood and saluted.
In the late 1940s, he was instrumental in starting the Michael Slatsky Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 7576, later merged with Post 5801.
He had served as quartermaster and post commander of 5801, and at his death was adjutant. Among his accomplishments there, he started a boys' unit of the post.
Recognition of his remembrances of the men with whom he had served came from the Department of the Army-Ohio Army National Guard in March 1990 as a result of The Plain Dealer story.
The Certificate of Achievement was signed by Maj. Gen. Ronald Bowman and cites Sweeney's "dedication in remembering the loved ones who gave their lives for our beloved country" and for "instilling patriotism into every one of us."
In addition to his wife, Mr. Sweeney is survived by daughter, Bridget Ann of Cleveland; sons, Kevin of Newburgh Heights, Terrence of Parma and Brian of Newburgh Heights; and seven grandchildren.
Services will be tomorrow at 9:15 a.m. at Hopko funeral home, 6020 Broadview Rd., Parma, followed by a funeral Mass at 10 a.m. at St. John Nepomucene Church, 4906 Fleet Ave.
Burial will be at Holy Cross Cemetery.
Plain Dealer - Thursday, April 1, 1993
Army Veteran - Enlistment Date: 4/14/1942
age 73
Contributor: LindaC (48110750)
Somebody else is going to have to pay homage to the memories of World War II veterans on Memorial Day this year.
For more than 30 years, Bernard S. Sweeney spent his vacation weeks making the rounds of Greater Cleveland cemeteries to place American flags and his homemade plastic foam crosses on the graves of his fallen buddies.
In 1987, a Plain Dealer photographer captured the World War II veteran in Holy Cross Cemetery placing a flag at the grave of one of his buddies.
Mr. Sweeney, who was 73, learned he had cancer Dec. 29. He died March 29 at St. Alexis Hospital.
He was born in Cleveland and was a resident of Newburgh Heights, where he lived with his wife, Audrey, to whom he had been married 45 years.
He was employed in the main offices of the old Cleveland Transit System (now the Regional Transit Authority) for 10 years and had retired in 1987 from Day-Glo Color Corp., where he was the traffic control manager and a 27-year employee.
He served with the U.S. Army Air Corps and spent his tour of duty in Anchorage, Alaska.
Knowing that the ranks of the men who fought in that war were getting smaller as death claimed them, and that many were virtually forgotten, he set out to honor them by the simple, heartfelt placing of the poppy-decorated crosses beside their headstones.
As he knelt at each grave, the tall, white-haired man whispered a prayer, stood and saluted.
In the late 1940s, he was instrumental in starting the Michael Slatsky Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 7576, later merged with Post 5801.
He had served as quartermaster and post commander of 5801, and at his death was adjutant. Among his accomplishments there, he started a boys' unit of the post.
Recognition of his remembrances of the men with whom he had served came from the Department of the Army-Ohio Army National Guard in March 1990 as a result of The Plain Dealer story.
The Certificate of Achievement was signed by Maj. Gen. Ronald Bowman and cites Sweeney's "dedication in remembering the loved ones who gave their lives for our beloved country" and for "instilling patriotism into every one of us."
In addition to his wife, Mr. Sweeney is survived by daughter, Bridget Ann of Cleveland; sons, Kevin of Newburgh Heights, Terrence of Parma and Brian of Newburgh Heights; and seven grandchildren.
Services will be tomorrow at 9:15 a.m. at Hopko funeral home, 6020 Broadview Rd., Parma, followed by a funeral Mass at 10 a.m. at St. John Nepomucene Church, 4906 Fleet Ave.
Burial will be at Holy Cross Cemetery.
Plain Dealer - Thursday, April 1, 1993
Army Veteran - Enlistment Date: 4/14/1942
age 73
Contributor: LindaC (48110750)
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