Mount Auburn Cemetery honors veterans with wreaths

Army, Navy, Marines, and U.S. Coast Guard; regardless of military branch, the veterans buried at the Mount Auburn Cemetery were honored Saturday, as it became the sixth site in Iowa to participate in the Wreaths Across America program.

“I think it’s unbelievable,” said Russell Coots of Auburn. “For just getting started in Arlington, the national cemetery, and to come down to Mount Auburn, it’s great.”

Coots and his family had several stops to make. They placed a wreath on the headstone of each relative, to remember what they sacrificed.

“We’ve got our father, which was World War II in the Army Air Corps, our uncle Lloyd Coots, which was in the Navy,” Coots said. “We’ve got Grandpa Coots Smalley … which was World War I Army Ambulance Corps.”

Coots was also here to honor his father-in-law Frank Wiest, and his brothers, all of whom went to war. His sister, Ruth Intlekofer, is responsible for bringing Wreaths Across America to her hometown.

“Every wreath is handmade,” Intlekofer told us. “All work is donated in volunteer work. The trees are raised in the state of Maine. There’s ten bouquets in each wreath, and each of those bouquets has a meaning to a soldier,” she continued. “I was raised in a patriotic family, and growing up as kids, my brothers and I, it was expected that we went to the Memorial Day parade.”

But it’s the times between Memorial Day and Veterans Day when Coots said it’s nice to have a reminder of our freedoms, and who fought for them.

“They’re all in the celebrations of other things and they forget the veterans who saved our lives,” Coots explained. “Thank them all the time. Anytime you see them, say hello.”
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