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Veteran from Valhalla Coming Back Nov. 11 To Tell Final Story
Hawthorne Players and Friends of Valhalla will present a special Veterans Day event on Nov. 11 at 2 p.m. at Valhalla Cemetery, honoring the memory of Corporal Lawrence Gerton Wells who died on a battlefield in France in the final days of World War I. Valhalla Cemetery is located at 7600 Saint Charles Rock Road.
Corporal Wells’ true story was dramatized in 2011 in Hawthorne Players’ “Voices of Valhalla: Hayrides through Time,” which take place every October in the century-old cemetery. Tim Callahan portrayed Wells in that event and again in this summer’s “America in Harmony” program at the Florissant Civic Center Theatre.
On the hayrides, visitors met Corporal Wells as he wandered through the grounds, searching for his mother’s grave. He had been mortally wounded on Nov. 3, 1918, and as he lay dying on a battlefield in France, Wells scribbled out a note in which he asked that a granite marker be placed on his mother’s grave in Valhalla.
Another soldier found the note on Wells’ body and sent it to newspapers in St. Louis. In early 1919, the story of the touching letter was reported locally on on wire services.
However, when Hawthorne Players decided to dramatize the story four years ago, it appeared that Wells’ wishes had not been fulfilled. There seemed to be no record of his mother’s having been buried in Valhalla. Certainly, there was no marker.
But recently, after further examination of the cemetery’s archives, a document was discovered, showing the location of her unmarked grave. Among other documents was a note, penned by Lawrence in January 1917, hoping that someone could help secure an appropriate granite marker for her grave. Those thoughts were still on his mind in November 1918 as he lay there in a field along the Meuse River.
On Veterans Day, Lawrence Wells final wishes will at long last be realized. Corporal Wells will again tell his story, but this time, the story will end happily. The event is open to the general public.
For more information call (314) 721-4900 or 314-359-0842.
Visit www.hawthorneplayers.com.
