Memorial Day concert at Green-Wood Cemetery honors fallen service members

GREEN-WOOD CEMETERY, Brooklyn -- Forget the beach of the barbecue, Green-Wood Cemetery is the perfect place to be for a Memorial Day concert.

These hills are alive with the sound of patriotic music.

It’s the 21st Annual Memorial Day concert featuring the New York City Symphonic Band.

Green-Wood Cemetery, founded in 1838, has at least 10,000 veterans buried here starting with those who fought in American Revolution.

“It’s just a very special day for us,” Richard Moylan, the president of Green-Wood Cemetery, told PIX11 News. “We have our Civil War Project going on for years, identifying 5,000 men who fought in the Civil War who are buried here and we are identifying all our World War One veterans as well."

William White, 76, fought in Vietnam and is filled with gratitude every day.

“In 1967 I landed in Vietnam and praise God, I took a plane out of there,” White, who lives in Washington D.C., told PIX11 News.

And he thought of those killed.

“It made me remember their mothers and fathers who it was probably the worst day of their life,” he said.

One song performed is often called the Black National Anthem and the man who wrote the lyrics to “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” Kames Weldon Johnson is buried at Green-Wood.

Just one more reason for audience members to be moved by this concert.

“What better place to come to pay Remembrance to people buried here,” Teresa Byrne, a Windsor Terrace resident, told PIX 11 News.

Another concert goer, Bridget McFall, of Bay Ridge, added: “I think a cemetery is a place we should stop by on Memorial Day to honor the dead, especially on Memorial Day.”