Gold Star moms to honors sons, daughters killed in action Sunday

LOUDENVILLE

American Gold Star Mothers members from around the state gather at 2 p.m. Sunday at Mohican State Park’s Memorial Forest Shrine to honor their military sons and daughters killed in action.

The ceremony is conducted on Gold Star Mothers Day annually on the last Sunday in September to honor Ohio’s soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen by placing the names of service members killed in action the previous year in woodbound “Great Books.”

The term Gold Star Mother dates to World War I when, in 1918, President Woodrow Wilson approved, as an official symbol of mourning, a three-inch black arm band with a gold gilt star for mothers who had lost a child in the war.

That tradition led to the covering of the blue star on service flags with a smaller gilt gold star leaving a border of blue showing and the term “Gold Star Mother” became a common phrase. On June 4, 1928, a group of mothers in Washington, D.C., organized the American Gold Star Mothers, which was incorporated Jan. 5, 1929.

Trumbull County has also honored its Gold Star Mothers and their children killed in war.

The entire length of state Route 82, part of which is in Trumbull County, is designated as Gold Star Mothers Memorial Highway.

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