On this podcast episode of River to River, some of our favorite stories from our archives. Our first is from October 25, 2019 when private military historian Brent Westemeyer uncovered an error in an iconic image from World War II. He discovered that one of the six Marines who helped raise the American flag on Mount Suribachi at the battle of Iwo Jima in the South Pacific was mis-identified. The soldier turned out to be a man from Brooklyn, Iowa. His name was Harold "Pie" Keller.
"As I heard from Kay, his daugter," said Westemeyer, "[Keller] was a very humble man, a family man, a man who is committed to his community, and served in many different capacities as the fire chief of Brooklyn, Iowa for a period of time," Westemeyer said.
Later on, we thought it would be nice to bring you one of our favorite sports stories, from August 2019. That's when the Cedar Rapids Sizzlers won the 2019 Granny Basketball National Championship.
We recently checked back in with Sue Hartley of the Sizzlers. They were able to complete one week of games for the 2020 season during the first week in March. But the rest of their season and the granny basketball national tournamet was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. Sue mentioned this still makes them the defending national champions.
Guests:
Brent Westemeyer, private military historian
Sue Hartley, Cedar Rapids Sizzlers
Diana Marker, Cedar Rapids Sizzlers
Margaret Beuter, Cedar Rapids Sizzlers
