09/27/2026
⭐️Gold Star Mother’s and Family’s Day — Sunday, September 27
💛Today, we pause to honor the mothers and families who have carried a sacrifice few of us can fully understand.
🌠A Gold Star represents more than loss. It represents a son, a daughter, a husband, a father, a brother, a loved one whose absence is carried every day by the family left behind.
✨️Here in Rutherford County, we remember the families of our own ten Hometown Heroes whose names are forever inscribed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial:
Gaston David Godfrey
Henry Harrison Ford Jr.
Steve Lewis Camby
Michael Ray Smith
John Mitchell Hicks
Jimmy Leroy Johnson Jr.
Douglas Grant Bailey
Steve Edwin Lowery
Earl Marshall Hayes
Michael Ray Street
⭐️These men were more than names on The Wall. They were sons who were raised and loved. They had families, friends, hopes, plans and stories. Behind each of their names is a family whose sacrifice became part of their own story.
💫We also remember Cpl. Christopher S. Ebert, a Rutherford County Marine who was killed in action in Al Anbar Province, Iraq, on September 17, 2004. His legacy lives on through the Marine Corps League detachment McL #1221 Rutherford County that proudly bears his name, whose members have partnered with us in bringing The Wall That Heals to Rutherford County. Though Chris is not among the names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, his family’s sacrifice reminds us that the meaning of the Gold Star reaches across generations and conflicts
🇺🇸As we prepare to welcome The Wall That Heals to Rutherford County this November, may we remember that every name represents a life, and every life represents people who loved them.
⭐️Today especially, we remember the mothers who sent their sons and daughters away and never held them again. We remember the families whose lives changed forever. We remember those who have spent decades carrying both tremendous pride and immeasurable loss.
💛To every Gold Star Mother and every Gold Star Family: we see you, we honor you, and we remember with you.
✨️May the names of our ten Hometown Heroes always be spoken, may Chris Ebert’s legacy continue to be honored, and may every Gold Star family know that their loved one is not forgotten.
Every name has a story.Every life mattered.We will never forget.
➡️Read Gold Star Mothers stories on the VVMF blog at https://vvmf.wordpress.com/tag/gold-star-mothers/.