The Dallas County Freedom Rock® at Minburn was dedicated on this date in 2019. The Wilson brothers of Minburn are remembered on one side (all five served, only two came home) and sports greats Nile Kinnick of Adel and Bob Feller (Van Meter) on the other.
The area also includes a storyboard a wall of commemorative bricks that remember more who served. Minburn American Legion Post 99 sponsored. The Freedom Rock® artist Ray Bubba Sorensen designed and painted all of Iowa’s Freedom Rocks®.
The Wilson bothers were the sons of Clabe and Leora Wilson, my grandparents, and brothers of Doris (Mom) and Darlene (twin to the middle brother, who has never been found).
I was asked to speak at the dedication. Because of severe fibromyalgia, I hadn’t been able to speak or give a program for 18 years, so I was very grateful to be able to tell the Wilson story. They were tenant farmers only a couple of miles from that Freedom Rock®.
The story of Iowa’s Freedom Rocks is Chapter 35 in What Leora Never Knew: A Granddaughter’s Quest for Answers, and in the chapter on Memorial Day in The Immigrant and the Outlaw: A Collection of Stories from America’s Heartland.
God granted me just enough energy to give talks and join book clubs to talk about the Wilson family for about five years before fibromyalgia and Crohn’s ganged up on my waning energy. Favorite Guy’s Parkinson’s symptoms began to overwhelm him as well, but we are so grateful for the events I was able to join. . . as far as Guthrie Center and Panora, even Polk City, and for the terrific folks we were able to visit with at these events.