Story about Rock Falls veteran’s gift comes full circle

On Saturday, I had the opportunity to attend a ceremony at the Sterling American Legion. Friends, family and fellow veterans were at the Legion that afternoon to see Freida McCombs of Rock Falls present a picture to the organization at the request of her late husband, Robert.

Robert, a Vietnam veteran, died March 17 from bladder cancer linked to Agent Orange exposure. Before his death, he had made Freida promise that she would give to the Legion a picture that Robert had found years ago.

Freida said the picture reminded Robert of the need to remember those who do not make it home from serving their country – a belief sharpened by an encounter he had with a fallen serviceman’s mother years ago after Robert accompanied the man’s body home.

The picture, “Last Stop Before Home,” depicts a train station, drawn in black and white, and a flag-draped coffin on the station’s platform, alone.

Sterling Legion members were eager to accept the print, which now hangs in the Legion for all to see. I covered the ceremony on Saturday and an article about the ceremony was published in Tuesday’s Sterling Gazette and Dixon Telegraph.

And that’s where the story ended.

Or so I thought.

On Monday, I received an email from Rich Sanders, who knew exactly where the “Last Stop Before Home” print originated and personally knew the man who created it.

The print’s artwork was created by Marv Kunde, of Oregon, who died in January at age 83. Kunde, a 1957 Dixon High School graduate and himself a Vietnam veteran, actually had proposed the idea of a veterans memorial for Ogle County.

Sanders wrote that Kunde was not always a very active member of the Rock River Valley VietNow.

“He made meetings when he could, helped out and socialized accordingly,” Sanders wrote. “He wasn’t able to come to many meetings because he was also the head chef at the White Pines Lodge.”

Not only a chef, Kunde also liked to dabble in creating art. He discussed with Sanders his idea of a memorial after one of the RRV VietNow meetings that he did attend in the late 1980s.

“Sometime after that conversation, Joe Russian, also an RRV member and from Stillman Valley, and I accompanied Marv to an evening meeting with Oregon Mayor Jim Barnes in his City Hall office,” Sanders wrote. “With a nod of the head from the mayor, a committee was eventually formed with Jim, Marv, Joe, two or three other Oregon people and me. We stumbled around with meetings, concepts and funding plans. We did a few small raffles and begged for donations. Finally, a conceptual drawing was approved and a plan for a memorial was off and running.”

Sanders wrote that all the work took about a year. A website was created, news releases were created and proposals were explained to various groups.

Sanders said that as one might expect, the biggest issue was they could never formulate a workable plan for funding.

“Finally, at one of our meetings Marv came in with a plan to raise funds,” Sanders wrote. “In his enthusiastic presentation, Marv thought that our project could potentially be totally funded through the sale of a piece of his artwork that also made an emotional statement about one of the most important reasons a memorial should be built. He said that he would donate the artwork with only the credit going to him as the creator.

“Our expense would be reproduction, promotion and distribution. At his conclusion, Marv pulled the covering off a framed ‘Last Stop Before Home’ print,” Sanders wrote. “The focal point of the print was the only color image, the flag-draped coffin in front of a depiction of the old Oregon train depot.”

Sanders said they kicked off their marketing campaign and hung a hefty price tag on the prints in order to try to help promote the visual emotional value.

“We had to order a huge quantity of prints for a price break,” Sanders wrote. “Some sold, some didn’t. Sales really tapered off after the initial purchases were made by people who had a heartfelt urge to buy and display the art.

“For a long time, I stored a case of prints at our house for on-demand sales. We had one donated to RRV while we were raising funds for the Desert Storm troop mailings. I bought one at a silent auction. Viewing the print always sparks my mind to think and reflect much like the ‘Reflections’ print of the Vietnam Wall.”

Sanders said reading about “Last Stop Before Home” in the news article Monday morning brought back a lot of memories.

“I was very happy to hear that the print is still carrying an impact after all of the years have passed since it was put to work for another purpose,” Sanders wrote. “And why shouldn’t it have an impact? It speaks to the cost of things. You did good, Marv.”

I’m sure I am correct when I say that a whole lot of local veterans agree.

Charlene Bielema is the editor of Sauk Valley Media, which publishes the Sterling Gazette and the Dixon Telegraph.