Palestine ("Pallie") Dennison Stone was born 23 Jul 1868 in Grayson County, KY, and died 8 Jan 1950. She is buried in Oakwood Cemetery, Hartford, KY. Pallie married Lafayette Stone and they had nine children, one of which, James E. Stone, was killed while serving in the US Army in France during WWI.
As the war raged, the Gold Star became
a symbol for mourning the fallen. Families who lost a loved one in the service
hung a Gold Star in their windows. Their female relatives referred to
themselves as Gold Star mothers and widows, and they created several national
organizations for collective mourning and support. These groups lobbied
Congress for an official government-funded pilgrimage to visit their loved
ones’ graves, which the government authorized on March 2, 1929.
Even after the crash of the stock
market in October 1929 and the onset of the Great Depression, the federal
government funded the entire pilgrimage. The Quartermaster Corps meticulously
organized the program and cared for the mothers and widows. They arranged every
detail of the journey and monitored the pilgrims’ physical and emotional
health. Escorted by Army officers and nurses, the pilgrims traveled to many of
the major tourist sites in the countries they visited, including the Arc de
Triomphe in Paris, where they laid a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
They subsequently traveled to the cemeteries and visited the battlefields and
memorials in addition to the graves of their loved ones.
Mrs. Pallie Stone is listed as a participant in the Gold Star Mothers' Pilgrimage. Her son, James E. Stone, is buried in the Meuse-Argonne Cemetery, Lorraine, France.
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