Nelson Emery lives in Sims, Arkansas. His father, Master Sergeant Marion Emery (1895-1986), was born and grew up in Story, Ark. He joined the United States Army in 1912, and retired in 1945 after defending his country in two world wars. Mr. Emery and his family have dedicated a memorial brick in honor of his father on the National World War I Museum and Memorial’s Walk of Honor.
It reads:
MSG MARION S EMERY
A BOY FROM STORY, AR.
SERVED WWI & WWII INCL.
A GUARDIAN OF FREEDOM
BORN 1895 DIED 1986
NEVER SHALL WE FORGET
Mr. Emery’s company, Emery Fixtures, Inc., manufactured the lamp posts that now grace the streets of the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City. They are replicas of the lamp posts erected on the grounds of the Pan Pacific Exposition that was held in San Francisco to celebrate the opening of the Panama Canal one hundred years ago. He also designed and built antique-style lamp posts for New York City. He and his family are members of the Museum, and try to visit the Museum whenever they are in Kansas City. In 2015, they made a special visit on Memorial Day accompanied by friends and toured the Museum with Dennis Cross, a Navy veteran, amateur historian and Museum volunteer. After the tour, Rear Admiral Stanton Thompson (U.S. Navy, retired), a member of the Museum’s National Advisory Board, presented an American flag to Mr. Emery’s grandsons in honor of their great-grandfather’s service.