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Newly Repainted 'Donna' Will Get Her Name Back In Custom Decals

Local veterans and volunteers recently repainted a World War II-era tank in DeKalb's Memorial Park but, in the process, covered up the stenciled name "Donna" that identified the memorial relic.

That slight will soon be rectified,  according to  American Legion Post 66 Commander Daniel Gallagher, whose organization was responsible -- along with the Veterans of Foreign Wars and others -- for refurbishing the tank.

Gallagher says the original paint stenciling didn't "look right," so, instead, a local company was commissioned to create custom decals. He says they were finished recently and will be added to Donna in the near future.

The tank was given to the city in 1949, but it isn't the first such object to be part of a local war monument. DeKalb originally had a WWI-era cannon sitting at the railroad crossing, but it was melted down for its metal during WWII.  

To replace the cannon, DeKalb acquired Donna, an M-5 Stuart tank, from the Watervliet Arsenal in New York. Gallagher says the name supposedly came from the girlfriend one of the tank's drivers, although Sycamore's Joiner History Room says there isn't a record of that name at the time the tank came to the city.  

For more than 50 years, Donna sat at the crossing and served as as a World War II Memorial. However, its proximity to the railway made memorial services difficult -- particularly with incoming trains and the legal inability to shut down Lincoln Highway.  

Thus, around 2001, a group of veterans petitioned to have Donna moved to Memorial Park next to 1st Street. A sustained letter-writing campaign and coordination with local concrete, crane, welding and towing companies led to the tank being moved there May 18, 2002, where it's been ever since.