Austen Brantley, artist, and Kathryn Dierckes, Colonial Dames of America in Ohio. Photo courtesy of The Bretts House.
Women Veterans Memorial Dedication & Design Unveiling
Wednesday, Nov. 11, 11 a.m.
Eden Park
The site for the new Women Veterans Memorial will be dedicated and the new design unveiled during the Veterans Day ceremony in Eden Park.
Connie Pillich, Hamilton County Prosecuting Attorney and an Ohio Veterans Hall of Fame honoree, will be the guest speaker.
The completed Women Veterans Memorial will be unveiled in Eden Park on National Women Veterans Recognition Day, June 12, 2027.
“Women could not officially join the military until 1942, yet they have served our country since the beginning,” says Kathryn Dierckes, of the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in Ohio (NSCDA-OH). “Women have served since the beginnings of our country, but their contributions have been often overlooked.”
In 1985, the NSCDA-OH installed a memorial in Eden Park honoring women who have served in the United States military, from the Revolutionary War to the present. It was the first memorial tribute in the United States to women who have served our country, nearly a decade before the Military Women’s Memorial in Arlington, Va.
But as America celebrates its 250th anniversary, NSCDA-OH is developing a new Women Veterans Memorial for Eden Park. They are partnering with Cincinnati Parks, the Cincinnati Parks Foundation, 1001Colors, and veterans’ organizations and community partners in the development and installation of the new memorial.
The new memorial will preserve a marker installed in 1985 and honor the breadth and diversity of women’s service across generations, military branches, and periods of peace and conflict.
“The Colonial Dames, as part of our mission to honor the people who serve the country, attend the Vietnam Veterans ceremony in Eden Park every year on Memorial Day,” says Charlotte Goering, president of NSCDA-OH. “A year and a half ago some of them went, and came back to report that one of the veterans had commented on a plaque near the Vietnam veteran’s statue. He said someone had almost tripped on it!”
The original memorial project was led by Ohio Dame Lida Montgomery, a WAVE in World War II. The WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) were part of the U.S. Navy Reserve, created to release men for sea duty and other combat roles.
“By preserving the historic 1985 marker and adding a new companion memorial, this project will ensure that the service, sacrifice, leadership and patriotism of women who have served our nation are recognized for generations to come,” says Dierckes.
Charlotte Goering, president NSCDA-OH. Photo: Tasha Pineol
The new memorial will be created by artist is Austen Brantley, a Toledo-based sculptor. Austen’s work has been exhibited across the country in solo and group shows, with sculptures in parks in cities including Detroit, Madison, Wis., and Montgomery, Ala. The design for the new sculpture will be unveiled during a ceremony on Veterans Day in Eden Park.
“I hope, when they see the magnificent memorial Brantley has created, that they see the love and appreciation of a nation.,” says Goering. “That they visit and know in their hearts that they are not forgotten and they are enshrined in history’s memory bank.”
The new memorial will continue the work the NSCDA-OH began more than 40 years ago, expanding it to reflect the full scope of women’s service on a scale worthy of the women it honors.
"From rolling bandages to serving in the field as nurses, to serving as spies, to turning over their cookware to support the military, had never been adequately recognized,” says Goering. “We wanted to change that.”
