The Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission said Wednesday it will honor two Honesdale natives with historical markers placed in the town in which they were born.
The roadside markers noting the impact made by Richard Smith, who wrote the holiday tune “Winter Wonderland,” and Gen. Lyman Louis Lemnitzer, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and supreme Allied commander of NATO, were among 23 newly approved historical markers, the commission said.
Smith, born in Honesdale in 1901, wrote the lyrics in 1934 while in a tuberculosis sanatorium near Scranton.
Lemnitzer, born in Honesdale in 1899, was a four-star general appointed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1960 as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, according to a biography hosted by the military. Two years later, President John F. Kennedy nominated him to the position of supreme Allied commander of NATO, which he served in until his retirement in 1969.
— JOSEPH KOHUT
