Father-son duo to lead Gilroy’s 8th annual Memorial Day
Parade
Gilroy – Larry Connell still chokes up when he thinks of the pilots he trained for Vietnam. For those that never returned, it was his job to inform the families left behind. More than three decades have passed since he had to knock on a door with impossible news, but the memories well up as Memorial Day approaches.
“I’ll never forget my first one,” said Connell, now 71. “You go in dress uniform. You take a medic with you and you take a cleric. I practiced and practiced what I was going to say. Door opened and that woman screamed and collapsed. I stopped worrying about what to say after that. There really isn’t anything you can say.”
Connell’s father Dale also knows the pain of losing fellow servicemen. At 91, he claims his memory is going, but he still can recite the many stops his Navy ship, the Southern Seas, made during its tour of duty in the Pacific Ocean during World War II. His ship sank during a typhoon in Oct. 1945, just months after Connell had been discharged from active duty as a Chief Motor Machinist.
“I lost 19 friends when that ship sank, men that I’d been with for two years,” Connell said.
Both son and father have the chance to honor those who fell in the line of duty on Monday as co-grand marshals of the eighth annual Memorial Day Parade. The event, started in the late 90s by former Mayor Mike Gilroy, begins at 11am, following a memorial service at Gavilan Hills Memorial Park.
As grand marshals, Larry and Dale will lead a long line of bands, floats, horse riders, Thunderbird cars and other participants down the stretch of 10th Street between Monterey Road and Orchard Drive.
For Dale Connell, this will be the second parade he heads as grand marshal. He last served in 1998, after receiving the Chamber of Commerce Man of the Year award for his years of volunteer service.
Since moving to Gilroy in 1947 with Larry (then 11) and his wife Ruth, Dale Connell has served more than a dozen boards, commissions, and assorted causes.
Larry Connell is also no stranger to community service. Since retiring from active military service in 1969, he and his wife have played a strong role in promoting music in Gilroy schools. The family’s efforts include establishing a music fund with a $50,000 gift to the Gilroy Foundation in 1997. They supplemented that gift with another $50,000 last year.
“Serving the community was always important,” Larry Connell said, crediting his parents for imbuing him with the drive to contribute.
The youngest generations of the Connell family will continue the tradition of giving this year. Four of their grandchildren (or great-grandchildren if you’re talking to Dale) will be towing wagon-born floats during Monday’s parade.
“The kids are so excited they can’t sleep nights,” Dale Connell said.
He and his son pointed out that the parade holds special meaning this year for Gilroyans, who last year lost their first native son to combat since Vietnam. Last November, thousands from Gilroy and surrounding areas came out to honor Lance Cpl. Jeramy Ailes, a 22-year-old Marine who died while fighting insurgents in Fallujah, Iraq.
“I’ve been to many memorial services over the years,” Larry Connell said. “The way they turned out for this young Marine really made me proud. Certainly it was better than any words.”
