RISON - Four Quilts of Valor were presented to Cleveland County veterans Tuesday morning in a ceremony at the Cleveland County Senior Citizens Center in Rison.William M. Threlkeld, John Young, Nadine Young and Thomas Young, all of the Rison area, were presented quilts created by the Benton-based "Never Forgotten in Arkansas" chapter of the Quilts of Valor Foundation.Never Forgotten's Karen Mitchell, Kay Bumgardner and Beverly Garrett, all of Benton, and Brenda Hendrix of White Hall presented the quilts. The program was arranged through the Cleveland County Extension Homemakers Council.The Quilts of Valor was established in 2003 by Catherine Roberts, whose son, Nat, was deployed in Iraq at the time. She said she had a vivid dream of a young soldier in despair sitting on the side of his bed when the scene changed to see him wrapped in quilt, which changed his demeanor.Since then, volunteers with Quilts of Valor have made handmade quilts for more than 419,000 veterans. A total of 16 quilts have been presented to veterans in Cleveland County this year after 12 were presented in a ceremony at Center Missionary Baptist Church at Rowell in January.Among those witnessing the ceremony was Bettie Young of Rison, who had seven of her eight children serve in the military.Threlkeld was an E6 in the U.S. Navy, serving from 1956 through 1993. He served in Vietnam and was stationed at Hawaii White Beach, Okinawa, Japan; Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico; Key West, Fla.; San Diego, Calif.; Port Arthur, Texas; Scotland; Ireland; Spain; Italy; Greece; Japan and the Philippines. He served on the Salisbury Sound, and received the Penguin Good Conduct Ribbon four times, Naval Reserve Meritorious Service three times, Armed Forces Reserve Medal; Letter of Appreciation; and the Letter of Commendation four times.John Young was an E3 in the U.S. Army serving in Vietnam from 1967 to 1969. He received the Bronze Star for Heroism, the Army Commendat...
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