Senator Ron Johnson and Representative Sean Duffy to attend Glenwood City Post Office renaming

By Cara L. Dempski

GLENWOOD CITY — A representative of congressman Sean Duffy has confirmed that Representative Duffy will be joined by U.S. Senator Ron Johnson at the August 31 renaming ceremony for the post office in Glenwood City.

Cassie Smedile, communications director for Representative Duffy, stated the congressman’s office received communication from Senator Johnson’s office that he would be happy to participate in the renaming ceremony.

Smedile said she gives a lot of credit to Glenwood City native, Sally Berkholder, for bringing Second Lt. Ellen Ainsworth’s story to Duffy’s attention.

Berkholder said that Duffy’s office contacted her after an article about Ainsworth was printed in the St. Paul Pioneer Press in 2014. The article detailed Ainsworth’s service as a combat nurse in World War II and was published on Memorial Day.

Second Lt. Ainsworth died in February 1944, four days after being struck by shrapnel from German shelling of the hospital where she worked in Anzio, Italy. She is the only woman from Wisconsin to have died as a result of hostile action during World War II.

Duffy’s officer contacted Berkholder after having read Ainsworth’s story because he had never heard it before and was impressed by it.

Berkholder took an active interest in Ainsworth’s story after realizing how many people in Glenwood City were touched by Ainsworth’s death. It wasn’t until after commenting to the local paper about having visited where Ainsworth was buried in Italy.

“I think the women of her (Ainsworth’s) generation don’t get enough credit,” Berkholder said recently. “They were sacrificing their lives right along with ‘their boys.’”

Berkholder goes on to say she “just about fell over” when she received a phone call from Duffy’s office telling her of his plan to propose a bill to rename the Glenwood City post office the “Second Lt. Ellen Ainsworth Memorial Post Office.”

Berkholder was instructed by the congressman’s representative to not say anything about the proposed renaming to anyone.

The bill passed the house in March 2016 and was passed by the senate in June 2016. President Barack Obama signed the bill in June. The United States Postal Service is in charge of organizing the August 31 ceremony.

Peter Nowacki, representative of the USPS, said the ceremony will be at 2 p.m. August 31 and will occur in a small tent in front of the post office at 220 E. Oak St.

The postal service coordinated with the city council to close Oak Street that afternoon and will be conducting a 30 – 45 minute ceremony.

“It’s really quite a ceremony,” Smedile said of the renaming. “We’re pleased to have this opportunity in Glenwood City.”

Nowacki said there will be a presentation of colors and Pledge of Allegiance followed by a brief invocation by local clergy. Remarks are typically provided by the congressperson who sponsored the legislation and often someone who speaks on behalf of the family.

In this case, Berkholder thinks there may not be any family attending, as the family members who resided in Glenwood City until death always said they did not want any public memorials. Shortly after her death, money was provided to create a memorial for Ainsworth, but her family asked that the money instead be spent on something “practical and useful.”

Decades later, Berkholder believes that by renaming the post office, the family’s wish is still being respected.

“What’s more useful and practical than a post office?” she asks. “Now her name will be here for everyone to remember.”