CITRUS HEIGHTS, CA (MPG) - Workers of the Sunrise Recreation and Park District have finished a much-overdue cleaning of a historic 73-year-old bronze plaque commemorating the service of 272 Citrus Heights men and women in uniform during World War II.

Over time, the plaque which is part of the Citrus Heights World War II Memorial in Rusch Park and the surrounding grounds became damaged by vandals and its benches marked with graffiti.

A memorial rose garden which was first planted in Rusch Park in July 1963 by the friends and family of Navy Lt. Dean M. Brown, USNR, who perished in an air training exercise at the Naval Air Station in Whidbey Island, Washington also needed attention. Brown was buried in Sylvan Cemetery in Citrus Heights.

In September, Dave Mitchell, district administrator of the Sunrise Recreation and Park District responded to an email inquiry by the Messenger News Group concerning the memorial’s overall condition and when it would be scheduled for maintenance.

Sunrise maintenance personnel cleaned and polished the historic bronze plaque, repainted the memorial’s surrounding benches and have tended to the original rose garden first planted in 1976, many of which are in bloom today.

“I’m proud of the crew members who tirelessly worked on this project and the work they have done,” Mitchell said. “The community of Citrus Heights can be proud of their efforts.”

In 2019 members of Citrus Heights American Legion Post 637 had expressed interest in working with District personnel to help clean the bronze plaque and refresh the memorial grounds but, largely due to the onset of the pandemic, were unable to do so.

The history of the Citrus Heights World War II Memorial in Rusch Park is one of lost and found, explains Larry Fritz, president of the Citrus Heights Historical Society. Now, a new chapter, one of restoration, is added to that story.

In 1948, three years after the end of World War II, residents of the community of Sylvan proudly erected a bronze memorial plaque to honor the names of 272 men and women who answered the call of duty to military service during World War II, Fritz said.

The total number of names listed itself is quite substantial, considering there were only 300 students in San Juan High School during the war years of the 1940s, he said.

The plaque also recognizes the service of three members of the U.S. Army Women’s Army Corps (WAC) members Beaulah Gibson, Catherine M. Nugent and Barbara J. Shomate and five members of the U.S. Naval Reserve (Women’s Reserve) who were members of Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES), Abbie L. Bogert, Marilyn E. Cain, Theda Call, Lillian Dundee and Dena Visker are honored.

“Citrus Heights was known as Sylvan in those days before incorporation,” Fritz said.  “Many of the names on the engraved list were the sons of prominent members of the city’s original founding families.”

The original World War II bronze plaque was originally located in a stone monument in front of the city’s first library on the corner of Sylvan Road and Community Drive on land donated by William Cobb, Fritz said.

When the old Sylvan library was moved in 1968, the original stone monument which surrounded the bronze plaque was demolished, and for a time, the large bronze plaque disappeared and its whereabouts were unknown.

When the World War II memorial plaque was eventually found, it was installed and incorporated into new stonework in the same memorial garden and rededicated on June 19, 1976. Pathways connect circular stone planters to the central memorial which features bench seating.

Participating in the original 1976 dedication were members of Citrus Heights Post 637 American Legion; Boy Scout Troop 82, Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 5991, the Citrus Heights Chamber of Commerce, Sunrise Recreation and Park District and the Citrus Heights Irrigation District. The local Rose Society donated 76 rose bushes for the new location, the symbol of the “Spirit of ‘76, a community bicentennial project, Fritz said. Joe Giusti, whose name appears on this list, was the only honoree who attended the special bicentennial dedication in 1976.

Mitchell said pressure washing of the memorial’s concrete and stonework should be finished soon. He provided before and after photos of the bronze plaque being cleaned restoring its finish to a bright bronze glow.