The Oakwood Cemetery Association will hold a ceremony Monday, Nov. 11, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I.
The ceremony begins at 11 a.m. in the cemetery, which is located at 107 Cemetery St., Martinsville. Former Congressman Virgil H. Goode Jr. is scheduled to be the guest speaker at the event that also includes speakers W.C. Fowlkes and Lucy Wilson.
The ceremony will include a wreath laying ceremony at the headstone of Pfc. George Edmond Pannill and Pfc. Jeb “Stuart” Pannill.
Both served in WWI as volunteers with Co. K. 9th Infantry, 2nd Division AEF, according to Danny Turner, a member of Martinsville City Council, who also is helping to organize the event.
George Pannill was killed in action on July 18, 1918 in Vierzy, France.
Stuart Pannill was injured in the same conflict. He died about three weeks later, on Aug. 5, 1918 in a Paris hospital.
Turner noted that one of the speakers – Wilson – is a direct descendant of the Pannill brothers and Confederate States Army Gen. James Ewell Brown, “Jeb” Stuart, for which the Town of Stuart in Patrick County is named.
Wright Funeral Services purchased the wreaths, according to Turner, who added the free ceremony is open to the public.
