75th D-Day commemorates local hero whose name is misspelled
June 6 marks the 75th anniversary of D-Day, a turning point in World War II. Across the globe, veterans will gather for speeches, re-enactments, and celebrations.
The National Medal of Honor Museum is coordinating something a little more ambitious. The museum hopes to have churches in the hometowns of the 13 American men who received the Medal of Honor for their bravery during D-Day toll their bells at exactly the same time: 2pm.
One of those men is Technical Sergeant Frank D. Peregoy of Esmont.
On June 8, 1944, Peregoy single-handedly attacked a fortified machine-gun position, killing eight and forcing the surrender of over 32 German riflemen, allowing the 3rd Battalion of the 116th Infantry to secure Grandcamp-Maisy, France. Six days later, Peregoy died at the age of 28.
If the name Peregoy doesn’t ring any bells, Peregory might.
A historical marker for Peregoy was installed in 1994, following the 50th anniversary of D-Day, at the corner of Emmet Street and University Avenue.
But the marker incorrectly spells Peregoy’s name as “Peregory” with an extra “r.” So does the armory named in his honor, and Peregory Lane near the National Guard Armory.
And that’s not all.
Historian Rick Britton noted in an article for Albemarle magazine that Peregoy’s date of birth is also incorrect. And Peregoy’s youngest brother, Don Peregoy, has said he was born in Nelson County, not Albemarle.
According to a fellow soldier, Peregoy falsified his birth date when he enlisted, and his name was spelled Peregory on his military papers.
St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Esmont, and First Presbyterian, First Baptist, and St. David’s Anglican churches in Charlottesville will be ringing their bells in memory of Peregoy and his fellow fighters.
Quote of the week
“I will be asking for votes and laws, not thoughts and prayers.”—Governor Ralph Northam calling for a special session of the General Assembly following the May 31 Virginia Beach shooting massacre of 12
In brief
M.I.A.
Three defendants in Sines v. Kessler, the lawsuit stemming from the 2017 Unite the Right rally, face sanctions for failure to comply with discovery requests. Nor were Matt Heimbach, Eli Kline, aka Mosley, and neo-Nazi group Vanguard America in federal court June 3, when the plaintiffs requested sanctions, with Heimbach and Kline’s former attorney James Kolenich agreeing sanctions were appropriate. The judge will rule in the coming weeks.
Divested
City Council voted 4-1 June 3 to get rid of the city’s investments in companies producing fossil fuels and weapon systems. Mike Signer voted no, saying the military needed weapons in a dangerous world.
He’s back!
Mamadi Diakite announced his return to UVA basketball for his senior year—less than an hour before the NBA draft deadline for players to withdraw May 29. The forward’s announcement was a sign of hope for the upcoming season, after star players De’Andre Hunter, Ty Jerome, and Kyle Guy declared for the draft.
EPIC endorsements
Not much has been heard lately from Equity and Progress in Charlottesville, a group founded in 2017 to challenge the Democratic grip on city government with Bernie Sanders-inspired progressivism. But last week EPIC announced it’s endorsing Michael Payne and Sena Magill for City Council, and Sally Hudson for the House of Delegates.
Screwdriver killing
Gerald Francis Jackson, charged with second-degree murder in the January death of his Belmont neighbor, Richard Wayne Edwards, was in court May 30 for a preliminary hearing. The Daily Progress reports officers found a red Phillips-head screwdriver believed to be the murder weapon. Detective Robbie Oberholzer testified Jackson threatened that if he was arrested, “I’ll kill you, too.”
Lumberyard fined
R.A. Yancey Lumber in Crozet was fined $24,000 for the July 2018 death of Floriberta Macedo-Diaz, 46, according to the Progress. The Virginia Department of Labor and Industry found four violations from the accident in which a stack of lumber pieces weighing 260 pounds each fell on top of Macedo-Diaz.
Two more years
UVA football Coach Bronco Mendenhall extends his contract through 2024. Since coming to Charlottesville in 2016, he’s taken the losing Cavaliers to two bowl games, and won last year’s Belk Bowl. Mendenhall’s base salary is $3.55 million.
Banderas monumentales
John Kluge wants to raise a 100-foot flag to honor the relationship between Mexico and the United States—and to annoy his neighbor, Trump Winery. Kluge, the son of a billionaire, owns eight acres in the middle of the winery that his mother’s friend, Donald Trump, bought at foreclosure in 2011.
In 2013, Kluge sued Trump, claiming he’d been defrauded when Trump bought the 217-acre front yard of Albemarle House from Kluge’s trust. The suit was later settled.
Kluge has started a GoFundMe page to raise $25,000 to commission a design and buy the flagpole, and he says any excess will go “to support entrepreneurship opportunities for refugees, asylum seekers, and other forcibly displaced people in Mexico.”
At press time, he had raised $7,715, but had also earned some comments suggesting people donate to immigrant support organizations rather than run it up a flagpole.