By Brenda Starkey
Chronicle staff

     REPUBLIC - Fred W. Bremner, Republic, walked among the gravestones in Republic Cemetery Sunday evening, May 24, placing American flags on the final resting places of veterans.
     An American Legion member, Bremner, 79, grew up in Ferry County and remembers most of those whose graves he marked with flags.
     His job this Memorial Day weekend was to honor the service of those who were in the military during war or peace.
     Many grave sites already were decorated with flowers and some with flags, but Bremner moved among the headstones preparing the cemetery for the Memorial Day service scheduled for the next day.
     Bremner, employed by Bergh Funeral Services, has watched the cemetery grow during the years.
     He shared memories of the deceased as he planted the stars and stripes on graves, telling anecdotes of the recipients’ lives or funerals as he walked along the rows of markers.
     He remembered a two-point buck making an appearance at the graveside services of an avid hunter and horses in a nearby pasture reacting to the gun salute at another’s interment.
     As he finished placing flags in one section of the cemetery, he headed up the hill to another area.
     “I need to go visit my friends over there now,” he said.