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Eyesore former bowling alley in Nanticoke sold in tax auction

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Deals for vets: Free LCTA rides on Monday, restaurant specials

<p>During World War II, towns all over Wyoming Valley were honoring their citizens away at military service by setting up community honor rolls in public places.</p><p>In the years after the war, though, these boards &#8212; usually made of wood and glass - fell into disrepair and were taken down. Today, even few genealogists know where the honor rolls were or what names were on them.</p><p>As Veterans Day approaches, let&#8217;s take a look at what one local town has done to rebuild its honor roll and restore memory of those days of courage and sacrifice 1941 to 1945.</p><p>A few years ago, amid the 75th anniversary of World War II, the Kingston Historical Society decided to figure out what happened to the town&#8217;s old honor roll and then reconstitute it.</p><p>The process was not easy. As a member of the group, I researched the dedication of the honor roll on the grounds of the Hoyt Memorial Library on Palm Sunday, 1943. The news story was accompanied by a list of the 1,600 names that were on it that day. So, with the old honor roll itself long vanished, we had a start.</p><p>But the war lasted two more years, and we knew many more names would have been added by war&#8217;s end in 1945.</p><p>Some of the founding members of the society came to the rescue. They knew that a public-spirited man by the name of Lundy Wright had prepared and sent out a periodic newsletter to the town&#8217;s far-flung service members, keeping them up to date on local news including the names of people who had just joined the military &#8212; exactly what we needed. What&#8217;s more, we had access to those old newsletters.</p><p>Three members &#8212; Isabel Pisaneschi, Judi Nunemacher and Diane Snyder &#8212; spent months poring over the old newsletters, painstakingly pulling out the names of all the people whose enlistments Wright had noted.</p><p>By the time they finished, about 1,000 more names of Kingston residents of that time were ready to be added to the restored honor roll.</p><p>The work, though, was rewarding. &#8220;We almost felt like friends or family members of those veterans by the time we read all of them,&#8221; said Isabel Pisaneschi.</p><p>On the evening of Nov. 20, 2017, the magnificent new honor roll was dedicated in the waiting area of the Kingston Municipal Building, on Wyoming Avenue. After 72 years, the heroes of 1941-1945 were back where they belonged.</p><p><strong>Genealogical Society:</strong> The Northeast Pennsylvania Genealogical Society research library will take some holiday time off this month and the next two months. The library is normally open 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Wednesdays and Thursdays. It will be closed on the Wednesday and Thursday of Thanksgiving week, on Wednesdays and Thursdays during the last two weeks of December and on Wednesday and Thursday in the first week of January. It will reopen for normal schedule the second week of January. The library is on the second floor of 57 North Franklin St., the Kirby Annex II. There&#8217;s parking in back.</p><p><strong>Luzerne County Historical Society: </strong>Don&#8217;t forget the talk &#8220;The Battle of Wyoming at 240,&#8221; to be held 6:30-8 p.m. on Nov. 14 at the museum of the Luzerne County Historical Society, 69 South Franklin St., Wilkes-Barre (behind the Osterhout Free Library). For information, go to the society&#8217;s Facebook page. While on that page, look for information on the annual Christmas event at the society&#8217;s Swetland Home. It is a not-to-be-missed holiday tradition, offering costumed interpreters of early life in Wyoming Valley.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Tom Mooney Out on a Limb </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/web1_TOM_MOONEY.jpg</photo0><caption0>Tom Mooney Out on a Limb </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>Tom Mooney</p><p>Out on a Limb</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Tom Mooney is a Times Leader genealogy columnist. Reach him at tommooney42@gmail.com.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Out On a Limb: Remembering veterans on honor rolls