Corry Memorial Day ceremony to honor man who helped choose nation's first Unknown Soldier
Corry veterans, historians and civic leaders will unveil a new historical marker Monday honoring a local soldier who helped bury thousands of American casualties during World War I and helped choose America's first Unknown Soldier.
The ceremony will be held in front of the Winger Suites & Williams Place store at 115 N. Center St. at 2 p.m. in honor of Charles P. Keating, who after the war co-owned and operated the Alexander-Keating Funeral Home in the building.
Keating was a Corry embalmer who joined the army at age 38 in 1917. He was assigned to the army's Grave Registration Service in France, which was responsible for the collection and identification of soldiers' remains, often while battles raged.
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Keating and his crew "began their work under heavy shell-fire and gas, and although the troops were in dug-outs, these men immediately went to the cemetery and in order to preserve records and locations, repaired and erected new crosses as fast as the old ones were blown down," American Expeditionary Forces Commander John "Black Jack" Pershing wrote in an April 20, 1918, letter describing their work during a German offensive at Mandres, France.
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"They also completed an expansion of the cemetery, this work occupying a period of one and a half hours, during which time shells were falling continually and they were subject to mustard gas."
Keating was one of two members of the detail praised by name in Pershing's letter, "as having been responsible for the most gruesome part of the work of identification, regardless of the danger attendant upon their work."
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The men continued their work "from the time the bodies were brought in, until they were interred and marked with crosses and proper name plates were attached," Pershing wrote.
Keating rose to the rank of lieutenant during the war and later was named to the civilian post of chief supervising embalmer for the Grave Registration Service, which established American cemeteries in Europe for thousands of American dead. When the remains of four unidentified soldiers from different sectors of the war were brought to France in order for one to be selected for interment in Arlington National Cemetery as the nation's first unknown soldier, Keating suggested and then executed the shifting of the four sets of remains between the four caskets so no one would know which body came from which sector.
Keating accompanied the selected body to the French coast. The procession was feted along the way until the body was placed aboard a ship to the U.S.
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After his return to Corry, he operated his funeral home from 1923 until 1932. He died in Corry in 1959 at age 79.
The historical marker in Keating's honor was paid for by Corry American Legion Post 365 and VFW Post 264. Corry Area Historical Society researched Keating's service. Impact Corry and former Impact Corry board President Steve Bishop launched the marker project and approached the local veterans' groups for support.
Bishop, as executive director of the Corry Higher Education Council, shepherded five historical markers through the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission's marker process. Before his 2019 retirement, he applied for a state marker honoring Keating. The application was denied.
"PHMC acknowledged Keating's role in the selection of the first unknown soldier, but didn't feel it rose to the level of historical significance worthy of a state marker," said Bishop, who launched the local marker project. "I respectfully disagree, and so do our local partners. So we're establishing this marker purely as a local initiative."
A reception will follow Monday's unveiling.
Contact Valerie Myers at vmyers@timesnews.com. Follow her on Twitter @ETNmyers.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Memorial Day ceremony to honor Corry man who helped choose Unknown Soldier
