KERR COUNTY — Kerr County officials and veterans organizations added two names to the county veterans memorial and read the names of 89 fallen service members during a Memorial Day ceremony that included musical honors and a multi-organization wreath laying.

Jennifer Sanchez, a Kerr County veterans service officer, opened the ceremony and introduced Jeff Harris, City Councilman Place 2 and a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, as emcee. Sanchez told the audience two names had been added to the memorial wall: Louis Amstoy and Dr. Bobby Templeton.

The recognition culminated in the public reading of the names of 89 local service members who died in conflicts from World War I through the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. U.S. Marine Corps combat veteran Ryan Haley read the list aloud. Judge Rob Kelly, Kerr County judge and a U.S. Army Reserve veteran, recited lines from the World War I poem "In Flanders Fields." Chaplain David Zavala, chief of the chaplain service with the South Texas VA health care system and a U.S. Air Force retired chaplain, delivered the invocation and the benediction.

The ceremony included musical honors: Lieutenant Colonel George Eichner, U.S. Air Force retired, performed the national anthem and Tim Graham played "Amazing Grace" on bagpipes; the Hill Country Honor Guard, led by Commander Arna Rathke, U.S. Navy veteran, provided ceremonial volleys and Taps followed.

A wreath-laying sequence brought forward representatives from dozens of local groups and veterans organizations, including the Kerr County Veterans Service Office, Sons of the American Legion Post 2208, Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1480, American Legion Post 208, Combat Veteran Motorcycle Association (CVMA), American Legion Riders 208 and the Kerr County Historical Commission. Organizers called groups forward in sequence to place wreaths at the memorial.

The ceremony closed with a moment of silence, a benediction and instructions to view a display of boots representing each name on the wall. "If you'd still like to, please go look at the boots. We do recommend it just because it does represent each name on our wall, and it symbolizes their final march on their last battle," Sanchez said.

Why it matters: the additions to the memorial and the reading of names are central elements of Kerr County's annual Memorial Day observance, honoring local service members who did not return from military service and reinforcing community recognition of gold star families and veterans' organizations.