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Rep. Williams to speak at Memorial Day ceremony

Union-Recorder - 5/27/2019

May 24-- May 24--Republican state Rep. Rick Williams of Milledgeville will serve as the keynote speaker at the Memorial Day ceremony Monday at the Georgia Veteran Memorial Cemetery.

A large crowd is expected to gather for the ceremony that traditionally draws people from all across the state, as well as some families from out-of-state.

Many local and state elected officials, as well as officials with the Georgia Department of Veterans Service and Georgia War Veterans Home in Milledgeville, are expected to attend as well.

The special ceremony that pays tribute to fallen military heroes begins at 11 a.m. The public is welcome.

The Georgia Veteran Memorial Cemetery is located at 2716 Carl Vinson Highway.

Since 2001, the Georgia Veterans Memorial Cemetery has held annual remembrance ceremonies honoring Georgia's fallen sons and daughters buried at the local cemetery, as well as other cemeteries across the country.

This year's ceremony was organized and will once again be hosted by Georgia Veteran Memorial Cemetery Director Linda Lavender and her staff.

Others taking part in the Memorial Day tribute include Briana Wilson, a talented local musician and singer who will sing the national anthem and provide patriotic music during the ceremony.

Members of the Robins Air Force Base Honor Guard from Warner Robins will be on hand as well to present the nation's colors.

The tribute also will highlight members of the John Milledge Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution. They will provide a 21-gun salute, using muskets in honor of the many military veterans who have died during the past year.

In a telephone interview Friday with The Union-Recorder, Rep. Williams, owner of Williams Funeral Homes in Milledgeville, Eatonton and Gordon, said he was honored to have the opportunity to serve as this year's keynote speaker.

"I'm very honored to have been asked to speak," Williams said. "It really means a lot to me. I spoke a couple of years ago out there at the cemetery and to be there to experience such a tribute to our veterans and their families really means a lot to me."

Williams said his dad, several uncles, his father-in-law and a lot of his friends served in the military over the years.

"I just know that we need to do all we can as a state and as a country to take care of our veterans and salute them every chance we get," Williams said, noting it was fitting to pay tribute to them at the local veterans cemetery, as well as their families.

During this year's General Assembly in Atlanta, Williams said legislators passed five more bills in the House and Senate, later signed by Gov. Brian Kemp, that helped make Georgia the most veteran-friendly state in the United States.

"Those were all bills that [were] asked for by the Pentagon," Williams said. "We've got to salute our veterans every chance we get. And we have to find a way to keep that going because it's so important."

Williams said even his HOPE Scholarship Bill, which was approved earlier this year, helps veterans.

"The bill does not penalize a veteran serving active duty," Williams said. "It gives them more time to qualify and get their HOPE Scholarship and a college education. The bill that extended the HOPE Scholarship from seven to 10 years, so someone who is a veteran even after they had started college and decided that they were going to go into the military and say serve 20 years. Afterward, they still have a 10-year time period in which to go and get that college education. It didn't penalize them for going into the military. Everything we can do to salute our veterans in life and at the time of their deaths, we need to do now more than ever."

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(c)2019 The Union-Recorder (Milledgeville, Ga.)

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