Monroe County marks Memorial Day with ceremonies across the Keys
Memorial Day observances will span Key West, Key Largo, Big Coppitt Key and Islamorada, as Monroe County closes offices and honors the fallen.
Ceremonies from Key West to Islamorada will mark Memorial Day across Monroe County Monday, with wreath services and cemetery observances scheduled in several island communities and county offices closed for the holiday.
Monroe County’s official observance includes a Memorial Day wreath service at the Key West Veterans Memorial Garden at Bayview Park, co-hosted by the county Veterans Affairs Department and the City of Key West. The county will also co-host a ceremony at the Murray Nelson Government Center in Key Largo with VFW Post 10211. Other listed observances are set for the Key West Cemetery at the USS Maine Memorial and Winslow Plot at 9 a.m., the Key West Veterans Memorial Garden at Bayview Park at 10 a.m., the Southernmost Cemetery in Big Coppitt Key at 11 a.m., and the Islamorada Hurricane Monument at 9 a.m. Monroe County offices will be closed Monday, May 25, 2026, in observance of Memorial Day.
“Memorial Day is a time for our community to come together in remembrance and gratitude,” Monroe County Community Services Director Cathy Crane said, reflecting the countywide reach of the day. In the Keys, where veterans’ services are spread between Key Largo and Key West, the observances give residents multiple places to gather close to home rather than asking every community to travel to a single memorial site.
The holiday’s roots reach back to the post-Civil War tradition once known as Decoration Day, when mourners honored the dead by decorating graves with flowers. Major General John A. Logan, leader of the Grand Army of the Republic, called for a nationwide day of remembrance in 1868, and the first widespread Decoration Day was observed on May 30, 1868. Memorial Day has been observed on the last Monday in May since 1971.
Monroe County Veterans Affairs, which has eight employees in its Key Largo and Key West offices, serves about 8,000 full-time and 2,500 seasonal veterans, military personnel, survivors, dependents and family members across the Florida Keys. In a county shaped by military service, Coast Guard ties and generations of veteran families, the day’s ceremonies function as both remembrance and a public reminder of the support network that continues after the flags are folded and the wreaths are laid.
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