
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, November 30, 1995                   TAG: 9511300059
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3 VIRGINIA   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

PEARL HARBOR DAY CEREMONY TO INCLUDE TIME CAPSULE BURIAL

A time capsule that was to be buried at the war memorial in Lee Plaza in downtown Roanoke on the 50th anniversary of D-Day - June 6 last year - instead will be buried there on Pearl Harbor Day, Dec. 7, after a 2 p.m. ceremony.

The capsule - which contains items from the Roanoke Valley History Museum's D-Day exhibit - is to be opened June 6, 2044, the 100th anniversary of the Allied invasion of Normandy during World War II. The interment was delayed because the first capsule chosen was found to be unsuitable for burial.

The featured speaker at the Pearl Harbor Day ceremony will be Daniel E. Karnes, commander of American Legion Post 3. Karnes is a member of the National D-Day Foundation, which is raising money for a D-Day monument to be built in Bedford.

D-Day holds particular significance for Roanoke, Bedford and other Western Virginia communities, because units of the 29th Division's 116th Infantry Regiment were the first to land on Normandy's Omaha Beach on D-Day. Before the war, the 116th was a Virginia National Guard outfit that traced its history to George Washington and Stonewall Jackson.

Roanoke donated space near the war memorial for the capsule and furnished the bronze cover for its burial site. The late John Will Creasy, a Roanoke artist and D-Day veteran, designed the cover and wrote its inscription, a tribute to all who took part in the invasion of Nazi-occupied France.

At 3 p.m., after the capsule is buried, the ribbon will be cut at the history museum at Center in the Square for the museum's newly opened D-Day exhibit.

by CNB