Ultimate sacrifice deserves our gratitude
The Killed in Action monuments at the Ronald D. Rankin Veterans Memorial Plaza on the grounds of the Kootenai County Courthouse and Administration building, Government Way and Garden Avenue in Coeur d’Alene.
KERRI RANKIN THORESON/Press
In 1998, my father, who was then a Kootenai County commissioner, began the creation of the Veterans Memorial Plaza between the newly remodeled county administration building and the courthouse. He vowed that no public money would ever be used to fund any of the monuments or memorials. When he retired from office, he was appointed curator for life. Sadly, he died just a few years later. The then-commissioners, Gus Johnson, Katie Brodie and Rick Currie, honored me with the appointment of curator for life of the plaza. They also voted to rename the plaza in my father’s honor. The dedication of the Ronald D. Rankin Veterans Memorial Plaza took place on Memorial Day 2005.
For the past two decades, it’s been my privilege to oversee and maintain the monuments and memorials. The original 8-foot-tall, 8-ton black granite Killed in Action monument includes the names of local men who died in combat from the Spanish American War through Vietnam. Again, with generous private donations, in 2012 my husband and I added the War on Terror Battlefield Cross monument to honor Kootenai County killed in action from Iraq and Afghanistan.
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