ST ELIZABETH VETERANS MEMORIAL

The St. Elizabeth Veterans Memorial is dedicated to all the men and women of the community who have been in military service, with special recognition for those who made the ultimate sacrifice in the defense of our country and our way of life.     

Facts about the Memorial 

 • Located at the southwest corner of the central town square, on the church lot across the street from the St. Elizabeth Mutual Insurance Co. home office.    

 • Conceived and built in 2008.

 • Began on the initiative of Al Luetkemeyer on behalf of the St. Elizabeth Mutual Insurance Co. to Ray Doerhoff, Commander of the St. Elizabeth American Legion Post 545.   • St. Elizabeth Mutual Insurance Co. funded the project. 

• Planning Committee: Ray Doerhoff, Al Luetkemeyer, Dale Doerhoff, Charles Wilde 

• Planning Committee decided on the preferred location, the general design, scope of names to be included, ground lease, general contractor, etc.   

• It was decided to recognize every person within the community who is or was in military service during war or peace (more inclusive than the definition of wartime veterans). 

• The community was defined as the St. Elizabeth R-IV School district The district includes the areas around St. Elizabeth, St. Anthony and Capps. 

• Persons must live within the district for at least five years to be included.  

• A memorial of tablets in a circle around a central flagpole was designed by Rosetta Doerhoff (Mrs. Ray Doerhoff).  

• Based on the design and location, Dale Struemph provided computer generated images for the plan.  

• Dale Doerhoff worked with the pastor of St. Lawrence Church and the bishop of the Diocese of Jefferson City, who holds title to the church property, to secure permission and a long-term lease. 

• Kidwell Monument Co. of Versailles provided drawings for the stone tablets and fabricated the tablets and center podium of gray granite.  

• Loethen Construction, Inc., Anthony Loethen, president, was the general contractor for the construction of the memorial. 

• The memorial was dedicated on Veterans Day, November 11, 2008. (The photo on the preceding page was taken that day.)  

• American Legion Post 545 maintains the memorial and has an annual Veterans Day ceremony to honor and remember those who served and to install a new American flag. 

• Names are added to the memorial from time to time as they are brought to the Legion Post’s attention. By November 2015 there were 526 names on the memorial. By 2022 there were 543 names engraved in stone (540 on the fronts of six tablets with three spilling over onto the back).  

• Veterans from the community who were killed action were given special recognition on a seventh stone tablet and with information in a notebook protected by a glass cover on the podium. Over the years, the elements took their toll of the notebook, and in 2022 the notebook and dome were replaced by a titanium plaque on the podium with QR codes to enable visitors to access the information using their smart phones.