Past Danbury Resident Honored at Veterans Day Ceremony

As the annual Veterans Day ceremony held at the Danbury War Memorial drew its usual large crowd, a small ceremony attended by dozens of family members and friends took place immediately afterwards next to the recently installed bricks in the Veterans Walkway of Honor which included a brick for a past resident of the City of Danbury.

When Danbury High School Class of 1976 classmate Jo Ann Salazar Wevodau, 63, passed away unexpectedly on June 15, 2022 due to complications from surgery, news traveled fast among her fellow classmates. Jo Ann was born in Danbury on October 10, 1958. Fellow classmates described her as someone who could light up any room with her smile and laugh and would be the first to help someone in times of need.

After leaving high school, Jo Ann enlisted with the US Marine Corps and served from 1977 to 1979. Then in 1999, she joined the Pennsylvania National Guard with the 213th Regional Support Group. She served as a truck driver, Administrative Specialist and an Automated Logistics Specialist. She also was deployed from 2003 to 2004 during Operation Enduring Freedom and from 2009 to 2010 during Operation Iraqi Freedom. While overseas, it was Jo Ann’s job to provide coalition forces with life and logistical support services, such as food, fuel and housing. Jo Ann also found herself working on projects that included repaving roads, building sidewalks, building showers and toilets and replacing tented living quarters for coalition forces with wooden ones.

When Danbury resident and classmate Lee Teicholz read about Jo Ann’s passing and her honorable 20-year service to our country, Teicholz reached out to classmate Bill Katzing. Teicholz, who is the Project Organizer for the Veterans Walkway of Honor in Danbury, suggested that they honor her military service with a veteran brick in the walkway. Katzing thought it was an excellent idea and wrote a post on the DHS Class of 1976 Facebook page asking for donations. Teicholz coordinated the collections and stated that within an hour, more than a dozen donations came through, enough to cover the cost of the 8” x 8” brick.

Teicholz stated that Jo Ann’s family was contacted and informed that a brick was being donated in her honor. They were invited to the event and stated that they would be honored to attend. Jo Ann’s husband, Mike Wevodau, daughter, Amy Torres, and son, Daniel Dockery, traveled in from Florida and Pennsylvania.

Wanting to do more for the Wevodau family, Teicholz reached out to State of Connecticut Veterans Affairs Commissioner Thomas Saadi and also State Representative Kenneth Gucker. Commissioner Saadi issued a Posthumous State of Connecticut Wartime Service Medal to the family and State Representative Gucker gave them a United States flag that was officially flown over the state capitol and also a citation from the local state delegation. Teicholz also gave each family member a smaller replica brick of the one installed in the walkway.

Torres spoke at end of the ceremony and stated that her mother was so proud to be from Danbury and was proud to be born and raised here. “My mother would have been so honored,” she said.