Lakeway Memorial Day service to include special guest speaker, live music

Sarah Asch, Austin American-Statesman
·3 min read

The city of Lakeway will honor fallen military this Memorial Day with a special service at the Church of the Resurrection of the Lord, Emmaus Catholic Parish, on Lohmans Crossing Road. The service starts at 10 a.m. and is free and open to the public.

The program includes a presentation of the colors by the Lake Travis Fire Rescue Honor Guard, an invocation by Rev. David M. Liebham and a welcome speech by Mayor Tom Kilgore.

City spokesperson Jarrod Wise said a new addition to the service this year is live musical performances by several members of the Lakeway Sing Along group. The group is composed of approximately 80 people who enjoy singing and performing and put on two regular concerts a year on top of other events.

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“It’s going to be great to hear music from a real group instead of a recorded group,” he said. “It will be nice to have them. And then Lake Travis High School is going to be supplying a trumpet player as well to perform TAPS.”

The Sing Along group will be performing the national anthem, "God Bless the USA"

and "God Bless America."

The city of Lakeway will honor fallen military this Memorial Day with a special service at the Church of the Resurrection of the Lord. Last year's service, seen here, was at Lakeway Church.
The city of Lakeway will honor fallen military this Memorial Day with a special service at the Church of the Resurrection of the Lord. Last year's service, seen here, was at Lakeway Church.

The service will also feature a guest speaker, Brig. Gen. Richard Drury, whose family moved to the Lakeway area in 1981. Drury officially retired from active duty in the Air Force in 1982 after a long career in military service.

Drury was commissioned upon graduation from the U.S. Military Academy directly into the Air Force as a second lieutenant, and he entered pilot training in Texas in June 1950. Drury served as a pilot, operations officer and safety officer at various bases in France, Korea and Texas. While in Korea, he completed 20 combat missions.

In 1959, he enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, receiving his master's degree in aeronautics and astronautics. He then served as an instructor and associate professor in the Department of Mechanics at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point,

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Drury served in support of the Vietnam War from May 1965 to July 1969, completing 315 combat missions. He returned to the United States in August 1969 to attend the War College, and upon graduation moved to numerous assignments on staff and in command positions within the Air Force.

Drury was hired as a senior lecturer and associate chairman for the department of aerospace engineering with the University of Texas in 1982, where he served until 1994.

Wise said he is glad residents will be able to gather this year to commemorate Memorial Day. The service was held last year but had to be canceled the year before because of the pandemic.

“It's always nice to have an in-person ceremony,” he said. “It's nice to kind of bring everybody back together again and be able to honor our fallen military.”

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Lakeway Memorial Day service to include special guest speaker, music