Quick Poll

Do you think Sarah Palin will be using her book tour to gauge a pulse of America in order to launch a run for U.S. President in 2012?

Blogs

Angela McRae

Tea with friends

Deberah Williams

Everyday Finesse

Lorrie Lynch

Who's News

Published Friday, November 06, 2009 in Local

Lowery dedication ceremony at Madras

By Sarah Fay Campbell

The Times-Herald

A dedication ceremony memorializing PFC Donald Lowery will be held Saturday at the Madras Middle School gym.

A plaque commemorating Lowery, who was the first Cowetan to die in the Vietnam War, has been installed at the gym.

The Donald S. Lowery Memorial Gymnasium at the old Madras School was dedicated in 1968. The school was closed in the 1980s. Several years passed between the school's closing and the building of Madras Middle School, and the honorarium wasn't transferred.

Lowery's childhood friend, Bobby Jacobs, decided to do what he could to have Lowery honored at the new gym, as well.

Jacobs worked with the Coweta County Board of Education to come up with a plan for a plaque commemorating the honor, which will be installed inside the school gymnasium.

The plaque will be right next to the large Madras eagle just inside the gym.

"At all the games and activities they have, when people walk out, or when they are sitting in the bleachers, they can see it," Jacobs said of the plaque.

Lowery, who was 19 when he left for Vietnam, was only in the country two months when he suffered a fatal wound to his neck. He died two weeks later.

Jacobs also spearheaded the drive to have portions of Happy Valley Circle honorarily named for Lowery and Tim "Skip" Cole, a fellow Happy Valley resident who was also killed in Vietnam.

The event begins at 11 a.m. Dick Stender, commander of Newnan's American Legion, Post 57, will lead the dedication ceremony.

"Everybody is invited," said Jacobs. Members of the Lowery and Cole families will be there, as well as friends.