Woodcarving of fallen soldier to be dedicated

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By Kay Luna | Thursday, May 1, 2008 10:44 PM CDT | () comments

Thom Gleich finishes a sculpture of Davenport North High School graduate Katie Soenksen, who was killed in Iraq while serving in the U.S. Army. (Jeff Cook/Quad-City Times) Buy this Photo

VIDEO: Katie Soenksen Wood Carving
One year after Katie Soenksen's death, Thom Gleich is almost finished with …
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Lindsay Taylor still sounds regretful, describing how caught up she was in studying for and taking final exams at Iowa State University about this time last year.

She did not know, until picking up an outdated newspaper days later, that her friend and former co-worker, 19-year-old Katie Soenksen, had died while serving with the U.S. Army in Iraq, killed by a roadside bomb.

Today marks a year since Soenksen’s death, but the 20-year-old Taylor — who ended up missing Soenksen’s memorial services last year — said she has never had a chance to really say goodbye, until now.

Taylor plans to attend a public dedication ceremony next week at Davenport North High School for a lifelike woodcarving of Soenksen, which was done by Quad-City artist Thom Gleich.

The full-length carving, which shows Soenksen dressed in her military uniform, will be placed permanently on display inside the school where she was a student and an ROTC member before graduating and joining the Army.

North’s ROTC students, many of whom knew Soenksen personally, raised $1,000 to cover Gleich’s cost to create the three-dimensional memorial.

It was the first time Gleich had been asked to create a life-size human replica, but he said he was honored to do so.

“I’m about 99 percent complete, as far as carving,” said Gleich, who is known for his elaborate works of art around the Quad-Cities and for his work as a special education teacher at the school.

He began working on the carving in late March, staying in close contact with Soenksen’s family and studying photos of the fallen young soldier along the way.

Soenksen’s mother, Mary Ann Soenksen of Davenport, said the finished product is beautiful, calling it “truly a labor of love.”

“It is hard to believe a year has gone by, seems like it has just happened,” she said in an e-mail. “That being said, this has been an emotional week, not sure if I’ll ever get past it. I try to stay strong, but my emotions don’t seem to cooperate.”

Taylor, Katie Soenksen’s former co-worker, said she still cannot believe her always-smiling friend is gone. She called Soenksen “one of the happiest people I’ve ever known.”

“I never saw her be anything but ridiculously happy,” Taylor said, recalling one day at work together when they laughed until they cried over nothing at all.

She paused and then asked to add this: “Make sure you tell everyone how wonderful she was.”

Kay Luna can be contacted at (563) 383-2323 or kluna@qctimes.com.

IF YOU GO

A detailed woodcarving of fallen soldier Katie Soenksen, a Davenport native, will be dedicated May 8 during an ROTC awards ceremony at the high school she graduated from, Davenport North. Soenksen was an ROTC member there.

Although the ceremony will begin earlier, the dedication is expected to happen about 7 p.m. that evening in the school gymnasium, Staff Sgt. Darwin McNeil said, adding that the public is welcome to attend.

For more information, call the school at (563) 388-9880.