An Okay man killed in the Vietnam War is being paid tribute today when a section of a local highway will be named in his honor.

The ceremony for William Kelly Downing will start at 10 a.m. at the George Hopkins Field House at the high school in Okay.

Seven miles of Oklahoma 251A from Okay to Fort Gibson Dam have been designated the Kelly Downing Memorial Highway.

State Rep. Wade Rousselot, D-Okay, said he will present a citation in honor of Downing that has been signed by himself and Lt. Gov. Jari Askins.

“We’ll have a brief ceremony where we will read the citation and give it to the family,” he said. “We also give the family Styrofoam copies of the road signs that they can take home. We’re way overdue; we should have done this a long time ago.”

Rolling Thunder, a motorcycle group of Vietnam vets, will then have a ceremony. After that, they will escort a procession along the newly-named section of highway to Fort Gibson Dam and back.

After graduating in 1964, Downing became a corporal in the U.S. Marines. He and a number of other soldiers were wounded in combat in May of 1967.

Rousselot said that during the fighting, one group of wounded was evacuated, but rescuers had to come back for the second group, which included Downing.

Downing was found dead with six enemy dead nearby. He was posthumously awarded the Silver Star.

The 1970 Okay yearbook was dedicated to Downing, and the school baseball field was named in his honor.

If you go

WHAT: Dedication of the Kelly Downing Memorial Highway.