ONE OF TWO SIGNS marking the Private Wesley Vietti Karna Memorial Highway, located just outside of South Range near the road to the South Range cemetery, where Karna is buried. The other sign is at Painesdale. Karna was killed Sept. 24, 1944, while serving in northern Tuscany, Italy, during World War II. (Graham Jaehnig/Daily Mining Gazette photo)

ADAMS TOWNSHIP — A 3-mile section of M-26 in Adams Township has officially been named the Private Wesley Vietti Karna Memorial Highway, after Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed the bill into law last month.

State Rep. Greg Markkanen introduced the bill to name the section of M-26 in February.

On Friday, the South Range VFW Post hosted a ceremony in which a replica of the new state highway sign was unveiled.

Brad Uren, Karna’s great-nephew, who worked closely with Markkanen and U.S. Rep. Jack Bergman on the project to have Karna memorialized, was present at the ceremony.

“It’s a great day,” Uren said. “I’m really happy to see all the work come to this conclusion. I couldn’t be happier.”

Uren said the project was a team effort.

“You don’t get something like this done without having a lot of people work on this. We’ve got a laundry list of people who’ve contributed to this.”

Markkanen agreed, saying that to get it through the committee in Lansing, then get it passed through the House and Senate, then Whitmer signing the bill into law involved many people working together.

“It’s a real honor for the community, for the family, and I’m happy to be here,” said Markkanen.

Karna’s nephew, named for Wesley, said though he did not know Wesley, his uncle has always been a very important part of his life.

“He died in September of 1944,” Wesley Karna said, “and I was born in January of ’45. My dad asked Wesley’s mother if he could name his newborn son Wesley, in Wesley’s honor; that’s how I got the name.”

Wesley’s mother took his loss very hard, Karna said, but her hardship was compounded just a few years later when her husband, Wesley Vietti’s father, was killed in a mining accident.

“That brought the whole family a lot closer together,” Karna said, “and Grandma — she treated me special, just because of my name.”

Karna was a private in Company F, 2nd Battalion, 362nd Infantry Regiment, 91st Division, II Corps, Fifth U.S. Army.

On Sept. 24, 1944, one month after his 22nd birthday, Karna was killed in action on the Gothic Line, in Northern Tuscany, in northern Italy. He was awarded the Purple Heart. Karna’s remains came home in 1948. He is buried in Mountain View Cemetery, in South Range, on the same street where he grew up.