On Monday, a 10:30 a.m. ceremony marking the memorial’s centennial will take place at Trafford Veterans Memorial Park on Edgewood Avenue, featuring music from the Trafford Middle School chorus and the Penn-Trafford High School band and chorus. Bells of peace will toll at 11 a.m., and the Trafford American Legion will host a light lunch in the Legion hall on Cavitt Avenue afterward.
Melva Simon didn’t just get to see her first Pittsburgh Penguins game in person on Saturday night. She was a guest of honor.
On Jan. 2, 1944, “a small mortar landed right behind me,” said Emanuel, a second-generation Italian-American. “That’s how close I was to the Germans” — in an olive grove below, manning a radio to help direct Allied fire.
Three decades ago, on Nov. 9, 1989, U.S. Army Sgt. Michael Rafferty was at home in West Berlin when word came over the Armed Forces Network that East Germans would soon be able to travel unimpeded to the West.