Known as Green's Drug Store during World War II, this business was a gathering place for locals. Its popular soda fountain allowed many people in the community to sit and read the morning papers while catching up on news with one another. Tucked away in the back behind a wooden booth was a small Western Union telegraph office. Twenty-one-year-old Elizabeth Teass was manning the teletype machine on July 17, 1944, when she was stunned to receive an overwhelming number of telegrams, each with the words "The Secretary of War desires me to express his deep regret...." The teletype machine continued with one message after another. Families throughout Bedford learned that day of the tremendous sacrifice made 4,000 miles away on the beaches in Normandy, and the broken-hearted community of Bedford was forever changed.