Decoration Day, precursor to Memorial Day, was once 'bigger than Christmas' in part of Missouri ^75.3%

KCUR - Kansas City news and NPR - By Kaitlyn McConnell - 5/16/2026, 9:00 AM

Anecdotal 37.4% - Hasty Generalization 34% - Unattributed Quote 28.6%

I'm walking through history right now at Linden Cemetery in rural Christian County, Missouri. Beneath this sunny sky, accompanied by birds, breeze and traffic from a nearby road, I'm thinking about May 30, 1915, when I've read that 500 people gathered here for Decoration Day. Ozarkers came to decorate graves with flowers, to reminisce... more