After leaving Proud Lake State Park last Thursday, we headed for the Wayne County Fairground campground in Belleville, Michigan. An added Memorial Day bonus was a glimpse of historic aircraft flying overhead as they headed towards the Yankee Air Museum.
While watching as President Bush spoke at Arlington National Cemetery, I remembered my visit there when I was about ten years old. At time we also visited my Dad’s cousin, Jim Powers, whose father, Ward Powers, who died in 1953 and was buried in Arlington.
Ward Stanley Powers, born in Michigan in 1893. After serving as a soldier in World War I, Ward returned to Flint, where he was a salesman in 1923. He had married Rose Love in 1920 in Rose's native Leroy, Indiana. By 1930, Ward was a U.S. Deputy Marshall living in Lake County, Indiana, with wife, Rose, and children. The family moved to Phoenix, Arizona, where Ward worked as a publisher (among other things). In 1946 Ward S. Powers made a very interesting career move -- he was the Republican candidate for the U. S. Senate in Arizona. He lost to the incumbent, Senator McFarland. Of course in the next election cycle in 1952, Barry Goldwater managed to bump McFarland.
My cousin, Bill Round, a Vietnam veteran, died last December, and so I’m also thinking of him on this Memorial Day. Even though Bill was my first cousin, our paths rarely crossed. Genealogical research spurred me to contact Bill and his wife, Penny a few years ago. In fact, I heard from Bill shortly after he finished this. A moving tribute to Bill was found here. An Army Ranger history is found here.
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