Rescued from anonymity
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George Everett Barritt served his country in World War I, but until recently there was no marker on the grave site of the Everett resident, who died in 1921.
Through the efforts of fellow Everett resident Ernie Sullivan and Joseph Hickey, the city's veterans' services officer, a military headstone was recently obtained from the US Department of Veterans Affairs to place on Barritt's grave at Glenwood Cemetery.
The headstone has been installed, and tomorrow on Memorial Day, a US flag will fly over Barritt's grave for the first time, according to Sullivan. The retired Chelsea High School teacher undertook the effort to document Barritt's wartime service and the location of his grave.
Sullivan said Barritt, who lived on Gilmore Street, served in the Navy from 1917 through 1919 as a machinist mate 1st class on the USS Liberty.
He died of tuberculosis in 1921 in Colorado and was buried in Everett's Glenwood Cemetery in an unmarked grave later that year.
Sullivan learned of Barritt as part of his ongoing effort to identify area World War I veterans buried in unmarked graves and obtain stones for them.
John Laidler
