Visiting loved ones

The engines of fighter planes rumbled as they passed through the clouds over Columbia, heading for the Memorial Day parade. Theadus Beasley and her adult son Andrew walked, carrying a small flag. “My family is very patriotic,” she said.

But the Beasleys were not going to the parade. They went to Columbia Cemetery Monday to visit Jack Beasley Sr., Theadus’ husband and Andrew’s father. They brought pots of purple, white and yellow flowers and a flag.

Jack Beasley served in World War II, going overseas in 1943, shortly after he and Theadus were married in October 1942. He landed in France a week after D-Day and also fought in the Battle of the Bulge. He died in 1991. He was 73.

On Memorial Day, Theadus thinks about the people she knows who served the United States. Her father served in World War I. Her son Jack Jr. served in the Vietnam War.

In the cemetery, Paul Land and Tanja Patton gave out flags to people visiting family members. Land is a member of the Columbia Cemetery Association, which purchased 100 flags to give away to visitors. Patton and her husband, Allan Patton, are the caretakers of the Columbia Cemetery.

Patton said Memorial Day is the busiest time at the cemetery. The tiny streets throughout the cemetery jammed with traffic as more and more people came to remember loved ones.

Veterans are not the only loved ones people visit. For the past six years Patton and Land have helped people locate relatives and friends buried there.

Alfreeda Harvey, a patient-care assistant, brought flowers to Helen Finch, whom she took care of for four years before Finch died in 2004. Harvey said she formed a close bond with Finch, spending each day with her. Finch made Harvey her godchild before she died.

Harvey said she planned to drive to Moberly next, where another former patient is buried.

“Both women were so loving and sweet to me,” Harvey said.

A large group gathered around the gravestone of George Nickolaus, a former mayor of Columbia.

Nickolaus’ wife, Charlene, his four sons and their families told stories about the man who served as a captain in the Air Force in the Korean War and died in 2003.

As they put flowers down and remembered him, drums beat at the Memorial Day parade down the hill.