The Cleveland County Veterans Memorial project -- seven years in its planning and creation -- will be dedicated at 11 a.m. Veterans Day, Tuesday, Nov. 11.

"It has turned into a first-class memorial that certainly we're very proud of and veterans will be very proud of," said Norman Parks and Recreation Director Jud Foster.

The memorial is in the southwest corner of Reaves Park, near the KidSpace area at Jenkins Avenue and Constitution Street.

Workers have been at the site all week, attending to the memorial's finishing details, including artist Shan Gray, who fashioned the centerpiece of the memorial: A bronze bald eagle, about 10 feet tall, clutching an American flag, draped over a five-sided black granite obelisk that stands 12 feet high.

Gray said the county, and the state, should be very proud of the memorial.

"The eagle has been a national symbol since the beginning of the country," he said. The sides of the obelisk designate the five branches of military service -- U.S. Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force and Coast Guard. Bronze plaques on each side of the obelisk give a brief history of each of the services and list the wars each service participated in, he said.

The centerpiece is surrounded by a circular plaza about 50 feet in diameter, with a landscaped walkway leading up to the area. Around the circumference of the plaza, a series of 25 raised black granite plaques stands ready for the engraving of 4,500 names of Cleveland County veterans who have served the country beginning with World War I, including those who died in combat and those missing in action or prisoners of war.

Architect Bob Goins, a volunteer on the memorial committee, said the names of about 1,100 veterans have been submitted to date and will be engraved on the black granite markers this weekend.

"Altogether, there's room for about 4,500 names of men and women who have some connection to Cleveland County -- either they were raised here or lived here for some period of time -- who have served the country in times of war and conflict," Goins said.

Goins, who designed the Legacy Trail walkway in downtown Norman, said he got involved in the veterans memorial project in 2001.

"I got a call from Jud Foster, who told me some veterans had approached him about the possibility of putting a memorial along Legacy Trail, and because of my involvement with that, he wanted my opinion," Goins said.

Because of space limitations along Legacy Trail, Goins suggested a larger space be found for such an "important community memorial," he said.

A meeting was held at the Andrews Park amphitheater, with Goins, Foster, then-mayor Ron Henderson and half a dozen veterans, he said. "We discussed the possibility of placing it there, but there was not a large enough space available. Jud suggested Reaves Park and we looked at the site across from KidSpace along Jenkins Avenue."

Goins said the fact the site was once part of the Naval Air Technical Training Center on Norman's old South Base, and a "major military installation during World War II," made the site especially appealing.

The city council approved the site in 2002, and an ad hoc committee was formed to design the veterans memorial. "We hired Rick McKinney and his firm (McKinney Partnership Architects) as the architects on the project," Goins said.

Gray, an Osage Indian and lifelong Oklahoma resident, created the design for the centerpiece.

"The City of Norman gave us two Challenge Grants of $50,000 each, and we came up with the matching funds," Goins said. "The county gave us $75,000."

The city council awarded Downey Construction, the general contractor, a $138,000 contract last June to begin work on the memorial.

Goins said hundreds of donors have contributed to the project, including Norman native and Hollywood actor James Garner who contributed his own funds. Garner was the first draftee from Oklahoma into the U.S. Army during the Korean Conflict.

Veterans eligible for the free listing are any honorably discharged veteran who entered service from Cleveland County, an honorably discharged veteran who entered the service elsewhere but now lives in Cleveland County or one who now resides in Cleveland County.

Also an honorably discharged veteran who died while in the Norman Veterans Center or in the care of a relative who is a permanent resident of Cleveland County, any MIA or KIA (Missing in Action or Killed in Action) and any military personnel killed in the performance of their duty while stationed at any military installation in Cleveland County.

Applications are available from the Norman Parks Department, 201 W. Gray St., or online at www.normanfun.com. More information is available from the Parks Department at 366-5472.

Goins called the project a "very handsome memorial."

"It's going to be well received," he said.

Tom Blakey 366-3540 tblakey@normantranscript.com