Jimmy Randall's Flag
<p>Jimmy Randall's flag flies over the home of Jim Shepperd on July 4, 2012. Photo by KERRI RANKIN THORESON, who said, "It's so much more than a flag, it's a tangible artifact that represents honor, duty, patriotism and friendship. God Bless Jim Shepperd and Jimmy Randall."</p>
In 1945 Rockland J. "Jimmy" Randall was serving with the U.S. Marine Corps during the Battle of Okinawa when he was killed in action. Jimmy grew up in Coeur d'Alene on Sherman Avenue.
One of Jimmy's good friends, Jim Shepperd, also an East Sherman Avenue boy, joined the Navy and went away to fight in World War II, but returned to marry, raise a family and make a life.
A dedicated citizen and veteran Shepperd has been, not forgetting any of the boys who never made it home from the war.
A few years ago, Shepperd, now 89, was collecting worn out flags to be ceremoniously retired by the Boy Scouts when a package within a pile of old flags caught his eye ... and an address: 1810 Sherman Ave., Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.
That was the home of his friend from youth, Jimmy Randall.
Inside the envelope was a 48-star flag, a flag that had draped Randall's casket and was then sent to Randall's mother over a half-century before.
Shepperd kept the flag, believing with all his heart that it was no coincidence that it was he who found that envelope.
Now he flies Jimmy Randall's flag every Fourth of July at his Coeur d'Alene home. An old friend, a veteran blessed with a long life, honoring and remembering a young Marine gone and buried 71 years ago.
- From Kerri Rankin Thoreson's Memorial Day speech given in May at Coeur d'Alene Memorial Gardens. Thoreson, emcee of today's Fourth of July Parade in Coeur d'Alene, is a Post Falls city councilor and a Press columnist.