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AMERICAN GOLD STAR MOTHERS
July 10, 2010
By Maisie Rodenbaugh
In 1917 when the United States entered World War 1,Georgen Seibold volunteered and requested an assignment in Aviation. He was sent to Canada where he learned to fly British planes since the United States had neither and air force or planes. Deployed to England, he was assigned to the British Royal Flying Corps. With his squadron, he left for combat duty in France. His mother, Grace Seibold began to do community service by visiting returning servicemen in the hospitals.
Her mail had stopped from her son, George and since all aviators were under British control and authority, the United States could not help the family with any information about their son. Grace continued her visitations to the veterans in the Washington area hospitals clinging to the hope that her might have been injured and returned to the US without any identification.
Finally on October 11, 1918, George's wife in Chicago received a box marked “Effects of deceased Officer 1st Lt. Seibold”. After receiving the information and realized that grief is self-destructive she began to lend a helping hand to others mothers that had lost their sons in the military service.
She organized a group of these special mothers, with the purpose of not only comforting each other, but giving care to hospitalized veterans confined in hospitals far from home.
After years of planning, June 4,1928, twenty-five mothers met in Washington, D C to establish the national organization, American Gold Mothers, Inc. It was named after Gold Star that families hung in their windows in honor of the deceased veteran. During the 1942 National Convention of the AGSM, the membership was opened to mothers who had lost a son or daughter in World War 11 and was again opened after the Korean conflict.
There is a bronze statue of a Gold Star Mother located in Veterans Park in Kent, New York. The model of the statue was presented in July 2003. It took eighteen months of sculpting and foundry work to complete the statue. It was set in place on her block of granite on July 2, 2006. The AGSM headquarters is located at 2128 Leroy Place, NW. Washington D C. For more information on joining this organization contact a nearby VFW Ladies Auxiliary.
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