Holiday Hero:
Birmingham Native Is Known as ‘Father of Veterans Day’
By Keysha Drexel
Journal editor
As communities across the nation prepare to recognize those who have served in the armed forces next month, an Over the Mountain family is preparing to continue the life’s work of its patriarch.
The Sunday before Veterans Day, Barbara Minor of Vestavia Hills will join her family to lay a wreath on a granite memorial erected at Linn Park in Birmingham to honor her father, the late Raymond Weeks, a Birmingham native who is sometimes called the Father of Veterans Day.
“Daddy wouldn’t want the attention to be on him. He always wanted the honor to go to all the veterans,” Minor said.
A U.S. Navy veteran of World War II, Weeks pioneered the concept of a national day to honor military veterans and founded the National Veterans Day nonprofit group.
That led to the first celebration using the term Veterans Day in Birmingham in 1947. The celebration included a parade and other ceremonies to honor veterans.
At that time, the only national event honoring military veterans was Armistice Day on Nov. 11. First observed in 1919 to honor soldiers and sailors of World War I, Armistice Day was named after the cessation of hostilities with Germany that went into effect at 11 a.m. on Nov. 11, 1918.
As he was building up the Birmingham event, which took place on Nov. 11, Weeks continued to lobby for a national veterans day, his daughter said.
“It was important to him and something he worked night and day on for years,” Minor said.
Weeks spent two years in the Navy during World War II, Minor said, and started the movement for a national veterans day after coming home after the war.
“After the war, Daddy came back home and noticed that there was no enthusiasm for veterans, no real way to thank them for what they had done,” she said. “That’s when Daddy decided to go to Washington and call on Gen. Eisenhower. Eisenhower was the president of Columbia University then–it was before he became president.”
Minor said she remembers her father getting ready to take the trip to meet Eisenhower.
“We were all very excited for him, but I don’t think that I fully understood what he was trying to do at that point,” Minor said.
Weeks invited Eisenhower to the Birmingham Veterans Day celebration and continued to push for change, Minor said.
“Daddy wanted a day to honor everyone who had sacrificed and fought for their country. It was important to him that all veterans were included,” Minor said.
In between his efforts for to establish a national holiday, Weeks continued to grow the Birmingham Veterans Day celebration.
At the first celebration, veterans from as far back as the Spanish-American War attended the Birmingham event. The parade in 1950 in Birmingham lasted two hours and covered 40 city blocks.
Weeks’ cause was taken up by Rep. Edward Rees of Kansas, who introduced legislation to change Armistice Day into Veterans Day. The legislation was signed into law by President Eisenhower on June 1, 1954.
Born in 1908 in Columbus, Ga., Weeks grew up in Birmingham, graduated from Ensley High School and Birmingham-Southern College and was active in the community all his life, his daughter said.
Weeks also organized the first Infantile Paralysis Fund campaign and then served as the first chairman of the March of Dimes. He served three years in the Alabama House of Representatives and was the president of the Birmingham Junior Chamber of Commerce, state commander of the American Legion and state chairman of Armed Forces Day.
He also helped organize the state Mental Health Association. Weeks was a Mason, an Elk and a member of the Aero Club.
Weeks won the National Community Service Award, the Veterans of Foreign Wars Award, the Faith and Patriotism Society of American Award and the Alabama Governor’s Distinguished Service Medal.
Three college scholarships have been established in his honor at Birmingham-Southern College, the University of Alabama and Samford University.
“Giving back to the community is something Daddy always stressed to us,” Minor said.
Weeks also encouraged his children to do their part to honor the nation’s military veterans, Minor said.
“We were all involved with it, especially at the beginning. My sister, Brenda, and I would help Daddy get all the letters ready to send out to the people he invited to the Veterans Day parade. It was something that he worked on throughout the whole year,” she said.
In November 1982, Weeks was recognized for his efforts to honor all veterans for their service to the nation when he was presented with the Presidential Citizens Medal from President Ronald Reagan.
“Daddy didn’t want to make a big deal out of it, but we all knew it was a big deal,” Minor said. “He wasn’t the kind of person who liked the spotlight on him, and I remember that he made a point of accepting that medal from Reagan on behalf of all the veterans.”
About a month after he received the medal, Weeks’ wife, the former Jennie D. Robinson, passed away, and Minor noticed that her father hadn’t worn his medal.
“It was a tough time for Daddy, and I told him that he should get that medal out of the box and wear it for Christmas,” she said.
Minor said her father was humbled by the award from Reagan, but she remembers “he was pretty upset that he had to miss the Birmingham parade that year.”
Weeks headed up the National Veterans Day nonprofit organization and the Birmingham event until his death in 1985.
“There was never any doubt what we were doing on Veterans Day while I was growing up, and it’s a tradition that I have carried out with my own children and grandchildren,” Minor said. “Daddy taught us to respect the sacrifices of the men and women in the military and to appreciate our freedom, and that’s always going to be important in our family.”
The family will attend a memorial service for Weeks at 1:30 p.m. on Nov. 10 in Linn Park just across from Boutwell Auditorium.
Also on Nov. 10, the National Veterans Award Dinner will be held at 7 p.m. in the East Ballroom at the BJCC.
Minor said she and her family are making plans to attend this year’s National Veterans Day Parade, which will start at 1:30 p.m. on Nov. 11.
The parade will start on Eighth Avenue and 19th Street and proceed down 19th Street to Fifth Avenue North. From there, the parade route follows Fifth Avenue North to 22nd Street and then to Second Avenue North. From Second Avenue North, the parade will go west to 18th Street and will end on Sixth Avenue North.
A Veterans Memorial Service will be held at 9:30 a.m. on Nov. 11 at Cathedral Church of the Advent, 2017 Sixth Ave. North. The World Peace luncheon will start at 11 a.m. in the East Ballroom at the BJCC.
For more information on Birmingham area Veterans Day events, visit nationalveteransday.org.
