V-E DAY SERVICE TO HONOR LOCAL VETERANS OF WWII

Residents of the Missouri Veterans Home in Cape Girardeau and several other World War II veterans will be honored during a V-E commemorative ceremony Sunday.

The ceremony, which will include a 50-piece Army band and nearly 100 World War II veterans, will begin at 1:30 p.m. at the Missouri Veterans Home.

The event marks the 50-year anniversary of the Allied victory in Europe May 8, 1945.

The celebration will coincide with the fifth anniversary of the dedication of the Missouri Veterans Home in Cape Girardeau on May 12, 1990.

The V-E Day program will open with a 15-minute musical performance by the 135th Army band of Springfield.

Maj. Raymond L. Pendergrass, state adjutant general, will be among several dignitaries participating in the ceremony. Others include Secretary of State Rebecca Cook and J.N. "Jack" Matthews, chairman of the Missouri Veterans Commission.

Among the veterans who are residents of the Missouri Veterans Home who will take part in the ceremony is Herbert Brucker, a native of Painton, who was born in 1916.

He was an Army tank crewman in Algeria and French Morocco in the North American campaign. He was also in Normandy and Germany in the European theater of operations.

Brucker is among the most decorated of the current Cape Veterans Home residents, having received four bronze stars, two silver stars and the Purple Heart.

His Purple Heart was awarded after wounds suffered in the Battle of the Bulge caused him to lose an eye.