Darien teacher to give Memorial Day keynote address

DARIEN — A Middlesex Middle School history teacher who is behind the town’s program to honor veterans with street signs will be this year’s keynote speaker at the Memorial Day ceremony after the parade.

Lucy Berry, a longtime town resident who also attended Darien schools as a child, has been teaching American history at Middlesex for more than 20 years. She will deliver the address at about 11:30 a.m. at the Veterans Dedication Ceremony in Spring Grove Veterans Cemetery on May 30. The speech always follows the Memorial Day parade.

Several of her relatives served in the U.S. Navy, said Berry, who is 59. And while in middle school in Darien, Berry said she did a genealogy project that revealed she was related to someone who had fought in the Revolutionary War — sparking an enduring interest in history and veteran affairs.

“I’ve really become so interested in veterans, wars and the history of everything,” Berry said. “That combined with my love for our town — I’m just so happy to serve as a keynote speaker. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing.”

Honoring Darien’s veterans has become a passion project for her. In 2019, after a trip to Washington, D.C., for a conference, Berry dreamed up a townwide Wartime Veterans Street Sign program, which lists the names of veterans with local ties on the street sign where they live or lived.

Each Memorial Day, Veterans Day and Fourth of July, another veteran’s name is added to an existing street sign, Berry said.

This year’s street signs will honor veterans and brothers Alan Morehouse and Philip Morehouse, both of whom fought in the U.S. Army in World War II. Alan Morehouse died in Normandy, while Philip Morehouse came back to Darien and became heavily involved in town government, Berry said.

Members of the public are encouraged to attend the ceremony, organizers said.