Jo McKenzie burned a personal message into a cane she was making for Luther Burnam Jr. of Panhandle, Texas: “Don’t sneeze.”
“Every time I sneezed, they shot me,” Burnam, a Vietnam veteran with five Purple Hearts, had told McKenzie’s husband, Stan McKenzie.
Burnam told the couple that he had been shot five times.
The McKenzies of Rogers are members of Woodcarvers of Northwest Arkansas, which participates in the Eagle Cane Program. Established in 2004 by Jack Nitz of Tulsa, the program connects woodcarvers with veterans who have been injured in the line of duty. The woodworkers carve “presentation canes” for the veterans.
The canes always have an eagle head on the handle, along with name, military information, honors ...
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Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 11/11/2009
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