Allen County Historical Society hosts presentation from WWII veteran’s niece on trip to Amsterdam

SCOTTSVILLE, Ky. – The monthly meeting of the Allen County Historical Society featured a special presentation from one local woman who took a trip overseas to visit her fallen uncle.

“I had heard about this from my cousin Janna that lives in North Carolina. She had gotten in contact with me and tell me about this trip that Deborah had made… and of course, I had known Deborah for a long time, but I didn’t know about this trip. So anyway, Janna was telling me about… Janna is married to Deborah’s husband’s brother, okay. I got in touch with her, and I asked if she’d like to do a program, and she said she’d love to. So it worked out perfect for us, because this is really what we’re about. It’s like the soldiers and showing respect,” Historical Society president Judy Keown says.

Deborah Harston’s uncle, Private Harry Smalling, was killed during World War II, and her trip to visit his gravesite in Amsterdam came out of the blue.

“I never thought I would get to do anything like that. So it all came about so fast and every day was just looking forward to going, and then we were there. It was just… you saw how we looked once we saw the graves, we were crying. So it was really neat to go,” she says.

In her presentation, Deborah shared how crews at the American Soldier Cemetery really take care of those that lie there, as Keown will tell you.

“They adopt those graves, they do flowers, they take their families there, they clean them… all 8,000 of the tombstones are cleaned every week… and it’s just amazing to me. But they are still grateful to the American soldiers for what they did for their sacrifices,” she says.

It’s programs like these that really help teach the citizens of Allen County about the past and those that came before them.

“We are really interested in this and particularly… obviously about Allen County and Scottsville, because that’s where we’re all from. We want everybody to understand who they are and where they came from… and all the sacrifices that these men, particularly these soldiers had to make for us to be free,” Keown says.