18 Jul 2026 The path of a patriot

Posted at 8:22 PMh in Features by

By Donna Lampkin Stephens

It’s probably not a coincidence that John Penrod was born on Flag Day. On June 14, the Air Force veteran turned 84. He is largely responsible for caring for the flags at the Arkansas State Veterans Cemetery in North Little Rock.

Photos by Makenzie Evans

“There’s a lot of history in my family as far as veterans go,” said Penrod, who grew up in a small town in Ohio but settled in Little Rock in 1966. “My father was in the Army Air Corps during World War II. His brother was in the Army. One of my brothers was in the Navy and one was in the Air Force. My brother-in-law retired from the Air Force as a pilot. He was shot down in Korea.”

His son-in-law, Donovan Briley, was killed in Somalia in 1993 when the Black Hawk helicopter he was co-piloting was shot down over Mogadishu. The mission was chronicled in the 2001 movie “Black Hawk Down.” It was one of the deadliest single episodes of U.S. combat since the Vietnam War.

Penrod’s father, Werner, who served during World War II.

“So I have a soft spot in my heart for veterans,” Penrod said.

He was stationed at Little Rock Air Force Base in the early 1960s, where he worked on aircraft radios. He transferred from LRAFB to a base in Ohio, where he was discharged after four years of service and married a woman he’d met in Little Rock. The couple returned to the 501; he retired from IBM after 35 years. Betty Penrod died in 2024.

John Penrod in 1960 as a member of the U.S. Air Force. He now serves others by caring for flags at the Arkansas State Veterans Cemetery in North Little Rock.

About seven years ago, he saw a Facebook post about volunteers putting American flags on graves at the Veterans Cemetery in advance of Memorial Day. “I thought, ‘That’s going to be a good thing to do,’” he remembered. “That’s how it all started.”

So he joined the volunteers to help put out the flags. “But when we took them up (after Memorial Day), we got to noticing some of the flags were kind of ratty,” he remembered. “I volunteered to help repair the flags. I’d bring them home and work on them, and it mushroomed from there.

“My problem now is every time I go out there, I see something else I’d like to do.”

Along the way, he joined the Arkansas Veterans Cemetery Foundation and became more involved. He said that when he started, the organization placed 77 3-by-5-foot flags on 14-foot poles along the street. “We dug them out of cobwebs and put them up for Memorial Day, and I got the bright idea that it looked so good I went to the director of (veterans) cemeteries in Arkansas and said, ‘Would you object if we left these up all the time?’ He thought it was a good idea.

“Then I got another bright idea. There’s a pavilion in the cemetery where they hold services, and I thought it would be nice if those flags would go all the way down to that pavilion. It ends up [that] we’ve now got 148 flags on the street year-round.”

Andrea Fisher, founder and president of the nonprofit Hearts of our Heroes, said Penrod’s vision had changed the cemetery for the better.

Penrod and his wife, Betty Mae. They met on a blind date. Betty passed away on January 14, 2024. August would have been the couple’s 60th wedding anniversary.

“With his determination, his vision came true, and the sight is truly breathtaking — 148 beautiful red, white and blue flags line the road winding through the cemetery, standing watch over our fallen heroes,” she said. “John did most of the work by hand, measuring the holes and distance between poles, digging each hole to place the pipes without damaging the irrigation lines, cut and cleaned the poles and attached and placed the flags.”

Besides the more permanent big flags, the foundation and its volunteers place smaller individual flags on graves and columbaria for Memorial Day and Veterans Day. For Memorial Day this year, the total was 9,769 — about 475 more than for Veterans Day 2025.

Fisher said Penrod preps, repairs and coordinates it all. “The amount of time he has dedicated and continues to dedicate to the cemetery and those who serve is unmeasurable,” she said.

Christmas wreaths are also placed during the holidays. “With all of our volunteers, we put out 9,000 wreaths in two-and-a-half hours,” Penrod said. “Volunteers are a big part of what we do. The North Little Rock Lions Club has been a tremendous help with that.”

He said the foundation relies strictly on donations. “Those flags are getting where they’re not cheap, and the wind blows quite a bit out there, and some of those flags get beat up pretty bad,” he said. “We have to replace them when they get tattered.”

For Penrod, his service continues to be a labor of love. “I’ve found something I really enjoy doing,” he said. “It’s for a good cause.”

To donate or for more information, visit veterans.arkansas.gov/cemetery-nlr-1.

Donna Stephens
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