Boyer Makes Pitch For Purple Heart Designation For City Of Ste. Genevieve

Virgil Boyer, commander of American Legion Post 150, requested last Thursday that the city of Ste. Genevieve be designated a Purple Heart city to honor Purple Heart recipients who live here and have lived here in the past.

He previously had requested the County Commission make a proclamation declaring Ste. Genevieve County “a Purple Heart county.”

The County Commission passed a resolution doing so last Thursday morning, hours before Boyer addressed the Ste. Genevieve Board of Aldermen.

Boyer said he hopes to tie the designations in with the grand opening celebration for the Missouri National Veterans Memorial in Perryville, which is scheduled for May 18 and May 19.

He thinks doing so would not only be an appropriate way to honor veterans, but could also boost local tourism and economic development.

“I think with the wall going in — it’s almost completed; they’re going to have a grand opening on May 18 and 19,” Boyer said. “Once that thing is opened up, I think they’re going to draw a lot of visitors down there … and them knowing Ste. Genevieve is only 20 minutes away and it’s a historical town and [if] we’re a Purple Heart city, I think we’ll probably generate a lot of people in this area for the restaurants and hotels because they won’t be able to accommodate everybody down there if they get the turn-out like they think they’re going get down there.”

See complete story in the March 6 edition of the Herald.