Meridian veteran launches move for Mabry memorial

By By Steve Gillespie / staff writer
April 20, 2004
Willie Schanrock wants to place a permanent memorial in Dumont Plaza honoring Chris Mabry, a 19-year-old southwest Lauderdale County resident who was killed in action in Iraq this month.
Mabry was one of 12 U.S. Marines killed in the Sunni Muslim town of Ramadi, Iraq. He was the first Lauderdale County resident and one of at least 11 Mississippians to die in the war in Iraq.
Mabry was buried with full military honors last week.
Schanrock wants to plant a maple tree and place a monument in memory of Mabry at the plaza this week. He also hopes to hold a wreath-laying ceremony.
He said he was waiting to hear from Mayor John Robert Smith about his plans.
Schanrock is manager of T.J.'s Menswear in downtown Meridian and is a U.S. Navy veteran who served during peacetime in 1956.
Schanrock said he didn't know Mabry personally. But Schanrock said he has talked to some of the Marine's family members and wants to create an everlasting memorial to the fallen soldier.
Schanrock said The Memory Tree Foundation has agreed to donate a tree and that Burton-Coley Monument Co. of Meridian has agreed to donate a marble marker inscribed with Mabry's name, birth date and date he died in Iraq.