Shirlyne Gobern, the town’s long-time Assistant to the Town Manager, lives in the house that was built by her ancestors and it is a home she spent time in as a child. Right next door to this familiar yellow house (which is about to undergo a dramatic change in color) is the monument dedicated to the men from Block Island who served in World War I.
Engraved on the monument are some of the names of the people who lived in the house she lives in now: Abraham Slate; Frederick Slate, father to Albion, Merrill and Claire Slate, and who also lived in the yellow house; and there is Winfield Dodge, who built the house in 1882.
Over time, Gobern has seen people sit on the two granite benches in front of the monument, one dedicated to Albion Slate and the other to Merrill, and she thought “the little area looked a little drab.”
She bought some hostas, dug a little garden at the base of the monument, put in a little frame, and planted the flowers.
Gobern pointed to some names on the monument and noted that not all of the men etched into the stone died
