Submitted Photo This is the McKinney Cemetery Veterans Memorial. A service will be held at the cemetery on Saturday to honor veterans buried there and in nearby cemeteries.

TOLLEY — For more than 85 years an annual memorial service has been held at the McKinney Cemetery, located two miles north and 1.5 miles east of Tolley.

This year’s memorial service to honor fallen veterans will be held Saturday at 5 p.m., and is open to everyone. An identification sign will be at the turn-off on N.D. Highway 5. In case of inclement weather, the service will be held at the Tolley Fire Department.

The Minot Air Force Base Honor Guard will present colors, honoring 54 veterans buried at McKinney Cemetery (34), Trinity Lutheran Cemetery (6), Hamerly Lutheran Cemetery (7) and St. Charles Catholic Cemetery (7). These veterans served during the Civil War, World War I, World War II, Korea or Vietnam.

The memorial address will be given by Darren Benson, great-nephew of Army PFC Robert L. Alexander, 27, of Tolley, who was killed in action on July 7, 1944, during World War II on Saipan in the Mariana Islands while fighting the Japanese. Alexander was accounted for on June 21, 2022, by the Department of Defense’s POW/MIA Accounting Agency. He was laid to rest on Nov. 14, 2022, at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, with full military honors and family members in attendance. His parents, Robert T. and Gertrude (Sutlief) Alexander, and other family members are buried at McKinney Cemetery.

Darren Benson, of Fargo, was raised in Glenburn and Jamestown and graduated from North Dakota State University with an electrical engineering degree. He has had a 30-year career in commercial and residential heating and cooling systems, including sales, management and design. His brother, Army Col. Jason Benson, and his father, Douglas Benson, led the DNA effort to identify Alexander’s remains.

Founded around 1886, McKinney Cemetery is nestled along the Souris (Mouse) River on three acres of land. It was certified as a historic location by the National Register of Historic Places on Dec. 28, 1978. The nomination for historic status identified the cemetery as the oldest cemetery in Renville County.

The cemetery was dedicated on June 22, 1913, according to The Tolley Journal. Just outside the cemetery fence stands the log cabin built by Frank Swenson in the 1890s and restored by the wildlife refuge. The McKinney Cemetery Association was first organized on July 20, 1911. Current officers are Michael O’Clair, president; David Stark, vice president; and Heather Gathman, secretary-treasurer.