Telling his story on the air: Otis Stone

An Indiana post used a local radio station to celebrate both Black History Month and the story of its namesake.

Otis Stone Post 354 in Evansville was first chartered in 1929. Stone, a Kentucky native who moved to Evansville when he was 20, went to France as an Army mess sergeant in June 1918. He developed pneumonia over the winter, and died in January 1919. His name is on the city’s World War I monument, dedicated in 1926, listed as “colored.” Only one other name is listed the same.

Post Service Officer/Historian Luther Nixon spent years searching for information on Stone, and eventually “found out quite a bit about him from his birth up until his death,” he says. In 2004, the post was rededicated in Stone’s honor; Nixon read his history aloud.

The post that bears Stone’s name made a name for itself almost from the beginning – in 1939, its drum corps marched in the National Convention Parade in Chicago. Today it is active from sponsoring Oratorical contestants, to conducting Memorial Day ceremonies, to competing in department poppy contests.

Last year, Post Commander/Adjutant William VanHooks Jr. decided to take word of the post to the airwaves. He went to the manager of local station WEOA, and finalized a script that included VanHooks reading off a short bio of Stone and information about the post today. It aired in February as part of Black History Month.

This opportunity is only the beginning for VanHooks, who says, “It’s about community service.” To that end, he is reaching out to increase the post’s activities within the Department of Indiana as well – and Post 354’s nominee for the department Military Person of the Year (active-duty), Staff Sgt. China Amber Lee, received the award at the department convention in July. “My goal,” VanHooks concludes, “is to get us back to being an American Legion.”