More than 100 members of Gold Star families attended the 1950 Memorial Day dedication of a huge granite stone inscribed with the names of the school’s 112 war dead.
Among the crowd were Mr. and Mrs. Matthew Fejes, who lost two sons, months apart, during World War II. In this Blade archive photo, the couple stood next to the memorial after the services. First Lt. Steve J. Fejes was killed in action March 22, 1944, in the South Pacific. The war hero had earned the Distinguished Service Cross in 1943 after he was severely wounded while attacking a Japanese pillbox and then leading his platoon forward to attack enemy strongholds.
His brother, Lt. Joseph Fejes was killed in an airplane accident in Watertown, S.D., on Sept. 29, 1943. Gold Star families are those who have lost a relative in active duty military service. The practice began during World War I, when families would display a flag or banner containing a blue star for every immediate family member fighting in the war. A gold star replaced the blue if the relative was killed…