SARASOTA (WSNN) – An unclaimed World War two veteran is honored with a 1,000-mile funeral procession from Sarasota to his old Kentucky home. Colonel Wallace Taylor outlived all his family members and was left with just his pet Border Collie.
“It is important to us that he be returned to his family. And that all of his final wishes are totally honored,” Coasson CEO Ronald Stoll.
After surviving World War II and leading Troops in the Korean War, Colonel Taylor died in Tampa at age 96 in February with no one to attend a graveside service.
“It is sad when someone doesn’t have a family to care for them at this point,” Stoll said.
So, his caretaker, Robert Lynch with the James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital in Tampa organized a funeral procession called the ‘Last Mile,’ through a partnership with the non-profit, Combat Veterans Motorcycle Association.
“He’s our brother,” Combat Vets 20-10 Tampa Chapter Treasurer, David Allen said. “We take care of our brothers.”
Friday morning, the three-day journey to his Kentucky home in Louisville began at the Jennings Funeral Home in Sarasota to place the soldier’s casket in a specialized non-motorized hearse with glass-paneled windows called a Coasson.
“As people see what we’re doing,” Allen said. “A lot of the times they’ll just see the motorcycles, and come flying up, but then they see the hearse or the Coasson. That’s when they slow down and it’s a thumbs up and waves and good job and all the support along the way. It’s really a special feeling, it really is.”
Stoll says he wants the soldier’s legacy of patriotism and heroism to live on.
“Here is a person who would do anything for his country,” Stoll said. “Here’s a person who in Zephyrhills was well well-known for his love of the United States.”
Sunday, a real hero service awaits the late veteran.
“We have Masonic services for him,” Stoll said. “We have the military service for him, a 21-gun salute.”
Hundreds of other motorcyclists plan to join the 1,000-mile stretch to Kentucky.
Taylor, who never married, will be laid to rest in full uniform. The cremains of three pet border collies, and a woolen afghan blanket crocheted by his late mother, will spend eternity with him. There will be ceremonies at every stop they St. George, South Carolina, and Knoxville, Tennessee. The Last Mile wraps up at Arch L. Heady Resthaven Cemetery in Louisville 4400 Bardstown Road, at 2:30 p.m. Sunday.
The funeral procession costs about 10,000, so a GoFundMe page was created.
