The Heart of Texas Post and Auxiliary will host a Memorial Day Observance at Eastlawn Memorial Park at 9:30 a.m. on Monday, May 25th. Memorial Day address will be given by Early Mayor Robert Mangrum, Colonel, USA, Retired. Taps will be played. Gold Star Families will be recognized by the VFW Auxiliary.

Memorial Day was officially proclaimed on May 5, 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic and was first observed on May 30, 1868, when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. The first state to officially recognize the holiday was New York in 1873. By 1890 it was recognized by all of the northern states. The South refused to acknowledge the day, honoring their dead-on separate days until after World War I when the holiday changed from honoring just those who died fighting in the Civil War to honoring Americans who died fighting in any war. It is now celebrated in almost every state on the last Monday in May (passed by Congress with the National Holiday Act of 1971).