By David A. Wilson
It was special a meeting of the California Women's Club at the Moniteau County Library at Wood Place. The members of the organization met at the library to check out the early literacy center on the second floor and to present Honor and Valor Quilts. Many guests were present.
A Quilt of Honor was presented to Jean (Dorn) Miller who served in Cadet Nurse Corps, a World War II program at Kansas City. She spoke of being in a military family, with her husband having retired after more than 20 years, including service in World War II and Korea. The family military service goes at least back to the Civil War, with Dallas Miller being killed on the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg. She also had two sons in the military.
Quilts of Valor were presented to Jim Donley, World War II veteran; Ralph Sanders, Korean War veteran; and Don Matthews, Korean War Era veteran.
Donley was a crew member of a B-24 Liberator, with 30 missions over Germany under his belt. He also flew on the first daylight flight over Berlin.
Sanders commented that he was "in the wrong place at the wrong time." He was serving in Japan at the outbreak of the fighting in Korea, so was sent there.
Matthews joined the Missouri National Guard when he was 17, then joined the U.S. Air Force, where he was sent "to Greenland to watch the Russians." He later rejoined the National Guard from which he retired.
The quilters group, which has joined in the efforts of the Quilts of Valor Foundation in its mission to honor veterans, meets on Tuesdays in the upstairs of Wood Place Public Library.