The Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in July 1976, when it hosted a statewide convention of the American Legion. Soon after, a pneumonia-like disease killed 29 people and sickened 182 more who had been in the hotel. The vast majority were members of the convention. The negative publicity associated with what became known as "Legionnaires' Disease" caused occupancy at the Bellevue-Stratford to plummet to 4 percent and the hotel finally closed on November 18, 1976. In 1977, Dr. Joseph McDade discovered a new bacterium, which was identified as the causative organism. It thrives in hot, damp places like the water of the cooling towers for the
Sons of the American Legion through the national Headquarters staff and the various Departments of the "American Legion"." Approval was given for the S.A.L. to conduct their first National S.A.L. Workshop during the Legion's National Convention in Dallas, Texas in 1964. In noting a need for a small national body to give the S.A.L. program national direction and stimulation, the Legion's NEC gave its approval to Resolution 60 at its May 8–9, 1969, meeting in St. Louis, Missouri. Resolution 60 created a four-member Sons of the American Legion Committee. After conducting a long and detailed study of the over-all organizational structure of the S.A.L., the