Donna Hornberger-Beguelin has been decorating veterans' plots at Oak Hill Cemetery prior to Memorial Day for the past quarter century.

Each year for the past 25, Donna Hornberger-Beguelin has made her way to Oak Hill Cemetery before Memorial Day.

She moves from grave to grave, about 300 in all, decorating each veteran’s resting place with a set of artificial flowers.

Hornberger-Beguelin’s late husband was in the Korean War, and she said she always felt a special closeness to those in uniform.

The tradition began 25 years ago, when the Lawrence woman came to the cemetery with her husband and one of his friends.

“We used fresh flowers then,” she said.

Her job has expanded through the years.

“I remember back when we had just 150 graves,” she said. “It just keeps growing every year.”

She said she planned to be decorating graves on the last weekend in May for “as long as I can.”

At 10 a.m. Monday, the American Legion will honor veterans at Oak Hill Cemetery with a 12-gun salute. The “avenue of flags” will also be set up, with close to 350 flags on display.

Gravestones honor vets awarded medals for Civil War heroics (7-21-03) Deceased vets not forgotten in ceremony (7-18-03) In Lawrence, cemetery tributes draw larger-than-usual audiences (5-27-03)