05/26/2026
The American Legion Post 189 in Lee's Summit is named after Robert L. Clore, a graduate of the Wentworth Military Academy who answered the call to service shortly after the United States entered the Great War. He enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps, with training at Port Royal, South Carolina, followed by Quantico, Virginia. By August 1917, he was among the early waves of American forces shipped to France.
His service ended tragically during the Battle of Belleau Wood with the 17th Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines. On June 6, 1918, while engaged in the struggle to halt the German advance toward Paris, Corporal Clore was killed by a shrapnel shell. The same blast wounded his comrade and fellow Lee's Summit native, Reginald Land, who survived the ordeal to return home. Land became a founding member of the American Legion Post on November 8, 1919.
