Rene Flory

Belleville renews Korea vet memorial

By Jeffery C. Mays
Star Ledger Staff

(November 1999) -- Everyone who knew Rene Flory Jr. agreed he had an incredib1y bright future.

The 1949 graduate of Belleville High School I was student council president, an honors student and by all accounts an upstanding young man.

His yearbook described him as very popular and good-looking ... fond of ice skating and girls ... wants to be a super-salesman but first will serve with the Marines."

No one was surprised that Flory would put his career plans on hold to serve his country.

"He was a hell of a good kid," said Michael Merola, 72, Flory's neighbor on Center Street. "He as always gung-ho for the Marines even as a kid."

He joined the Marines in September of 1950. In April of 1951, he was shipped out to Korea. By early June, he was dead.

Just a week earlier, he wrote a letter home to his parents saying that the worst was over.

But then another letter arrived at the Flory house at 40 Center St. This one was from the Defense Department. Flory, just 19 years old, had been killed in action on June 9, 1951.

"It really brought the war closer to home," said Dorothea Behan, who was teaching middle school in Belleville at the time. "My heart went out to his fami1y."

The whole town's did. Flory was one of three Belleville residents killed during the Korean conflict, which eventually claimed the lives of 800 New Jersey soldiers.

But Flory was Belleville's first, and his town was devastated.

The owner of a drug store and fountain shop Flory frequented organized a collection to buy small monument so that the well-loved  young man would not be forgotten.

A granite bench and a large stone with a brass plaque was placed in front of School No. 7 on Joralemon Street, where Flory attended  elementary school, shortly after his death.

But over time, both the monument and Flory faded into memory. His parents died. His only sibling, a sister, got married and moved away. The merchant who spearheaded the effort to get the monument and unofficially maintained it also died.

The grassy area at the intersection of Joralemon Street and Passaic Avenue was overgrown with weeds and bushes and covered by a large tree. Some estimate the monument went unnoticed for 20 years.

"I knew the bench was here,' but I never knew the monument was here," said Joseph Ciccone, who has been the superintendent of Belleville Schools for two years and has spent 29 years in the school system.

It was during an annual school grounds inspection that the monument was rediscovered a few weeks ago. Ciccone immediately called Joe Fornarotto, secretary for the Belleville- Nutley Chapter of Disabled American Veterans and a World War II veteran. Fornarotto searched the records he keeps on area veterans and verified Flory's history.

"When you get an individual like this, you can't forget them," Fornarotto said. "You can't forget the heroes who protect us. It's just wrong."

That's why the monument will be rededicated at 11:30 a.m. today - Veterans Day - along with a pledge to never forget again.

"We wanted to give a proper tribute," said William Villano, school board vice president. "That's what was missing."

The shrubs and the tree have been re- moved. The tarnished brass plaque has been cleaned. A wreath of flowers and 50 small American flags surround the bench and the monument.

It's only right, say those who remember the young soldier.

Flory was born in Newark in 1931, but spent most of his childhood in Belleville. In high school, he was a member of the National Honor Society. He served as an altar boy at the Holy Family Church for 10 years.

Flory worked at a linoleum factory for one and a one-half years after graduation before enlisting in the Marines. After training at Dover in September of 1950, he spent his final Christmas at home that December.

"He was a kid that everyone liked. He got along with everyone," Merola said. "He was one of those students who everybody thought would grow up to be something. That's why it was all the more heartbreaking when he got killed."

Now that the monument has been cleared, it is drawing a new generation of onlookers. Children' playing football on the grassy area in front of School No.7 stop to look at the stone and read the inscription.

"Kids were playing around the tree and bushes before. Now, everyone stops and looks," said Carrel Beck, a school crossing guard who has worked at the corner of Joralemon and Passaic for three years.

The children of the school will plant flowers around the monument in the spring and it will be used as an educational tool.

"Our intention is to never have this happen again," Ciccone said. "Very few people knew this was here. But we want to honor someone who gave his life.

Source

Adapted from The Star Ledger, November 11, 1999.

Email Comments

Snail Mail: PO Box 110252, Nutley NJ 07110

Entire contents BellevilleSons.com
Copyright © 2003-2008 by Anthony Buccino

All Rights Reserved