{"id":116398,"date":"2025-05-22T19:26:38","date_gmt":"2025-05-22T23:26:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/department.va.gov\/history\/?p=116398"},"modified":"2025-05-27T12:44:27","modified_gmt":"2025-05-27T16:44:27","slug":"the-story-of-mrs-irene-golden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/department.va.gov\/history\/the-story-of-mrs-irene-golden\/","title":{"rendered":"The Memorial Day Legacy of Irene Golden"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Irene Golden was born on the VA Dayton campus grounds in 1919, when the site was still the Central Branch of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers. Irene\u2019s grandfather was a Civil War Veteran who lived at the National Home, and Irene\u2019s father was a baker within the commissary department. For most of her childhood, Irene lived on the grounds in a staff apartment with her family, and she later attended nearby Roosevelt High School on Third Street. After graduating, Irene started working in the canteen on campus. There she met her first husband, a pipefitter for VA. She met her second husband some years later, a man who worked as a VA nurse for over 30 years. Irene may seem like a relatively obscure employee, but there is more to her story. She was locally famous for holding the record for the most sequential attendances at the Dayton VA Memorial Day parade.<\/p>\n\n\n