Published: August 01, 2003 12:00 am            

Local students walk 26 miles to honor Bataan Death March survivors

Some folks wouldn't walk across the room to change the television channel to honor veterans.

Ten Oklahoma teens, including Kolton Harper from Norman and Lisa Bingham and Kelcee Cooley from Moore, walked 26.2 miles in the New Mexico desert this past Sunday in the 17th annual Memorial March.

The walk commemorates the April 10, 1942 Bataan Death March where thousands of American and Filipino prisoners walked 65 miles through jungles in extreme heat on their way to war camps.

The Oklahoma teens, all cadets at the Oklahoma Youth Academy in Pryor, made the march in full uniform in honor of Elmer Parks, of Elgin, a survivor and prisoner of war for three and a half years. He was a Filipino Scout when he was captured.

"He didn't ever talk about it at first," said his widow, Naeoma Parks. "Later on, he would talk about it if you asked him. He didn't volunteer it."

Elmer Parks started out in the Army's horse cavalry at Fort Bliss, Texas. He was in the Air Force for a while and then in the 31st Infantry.

The cadets carried U.S. and Thunderbird Youth Academy flags and presented them to Mrs. Parks at the Elgin Municipal Building. Several local veterans were on hand.

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Bingham, 17, said she trained for 11 weeks and was honored to be selected. It took her 10 hours and 17 minutes. "I learned that 26.2 miles is actually a long walk," she said. Afterwards, she immediately sat down in the sand. "I didn't think I could ever get back up again."

Coolee, also 17, and Harper, 16, said what the veterans did was much more difficult. Hundreds died or were killed along the march.

"Ours was easy compared to what the soldiers went through," Harper said.

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When it came time for OU custodian Lorene Dover to formally accept her $20,000 Otis Sullivant Prize for Perceptivity Wednesday night, she was speechless. She got up from her dinner table and tried but the words just wouldn't come.

The accolades that preceded her to the podium reduced her to tears. Mrs. Dover's nominator, Interim Journalism Dean Joe Foote, said she represented the kind of good steward that universities need. He recounted her interest in 25 tiles that are deteriorating on the building's floor.

She could have just reported them once or ignored them altogether. But she was persistent because she cared about the building's future and the students that choose to learn there.

Previous winners have been top administrators or faculty members. It's exciting that the award this year honors a custodian, an important job that often goes overlooked in the university's enamorment with titles and degrees. Last year's award went to the head of food service, another unsung but important campus chore.

The cash award, more than Mrs. Dover's annual salary, was endowed by the late Edith Kinney Gaylord in honor of Mr. Sullivant, the dean of the Daily Oklahoma's Capitol press corps and a native of Norman.

OU President David L. Boren said Mr. Sullivant's "Observer" column was the first thing read in his family's home on Sunday morning.

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Juanita Salyer is looking to recognize another community custodian. She lives on Highland Parkway and reports a neighbor breezes through the neighborhood each day picking up trash.

He keeps Highland Parkway clean just west of Flood Avenue.

It reminds me of some other Norman residents who have taken it upon themselves to keep small pieces of ground clean. One man, now deceased, made Rotary Park on Boyd Street his cause. Another one mowed an old cemetery whose graves were overgrown with weeds and bushes.

Some campus walkers routinely keep stretches of sidewalk clean. Think what a clean community we would have if everyone picked up just a little. Or better yet, if littering became socially intolerable.

Andy Rieger 366-3543 editor@normantranscript.com

        

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