Great Neck to host 94th annual Memorial Day parade

Janelle Clausen
Louise McCann, as seen at last year's Memorial Day parade in Great Neck, said the parade and ceremonies are more about remembrance than celebration. (Photo by Janelle Clausen)
Louise McCann, as seen at last year's Memorial Day parade in Great Neck, said the parade and ceremonies are more about remembrance than celebration. (Photo by Janelle Clausen)

For Louise McCann, the chair of the Great Neck Parade Committee, Memorial Day isn’t really about the celebrating – it’s about remembering veterans who have fought and died, all the way back to the Revolutionary War.

“We do what we have to do to remember the day,” McCann, a member of the American Legion since 2006 and a war re-enactor, said in an interview. “It’s not about barbecues and sales at Lord & Taylor.”

Students at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point will once again march in this year's annual Memorial Day parade in Great Neck. (Photo by Janelle Clausen)
Students at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point will once again march in this year’s annual Memorial Day parade in Great Neck. (Photo by Janelle Clausen)

Monday will mark the 94th annual Great Neck Memorial Day Parade, which will once again feature military members and veterans from all service branches. It will also host a number of volunteers from local groups, as well as members of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy Regimental Band and the crew of the USS Zephyr, which is visiting Kings Point for Fleet Week New York.

McCann said of the 31 units invited – a combination of the “same groups” and more religious organizations – 19 will be marching.

But it’s not so much about how many march as how many people come to watch.

“It’s not the amount of units,” McCann said. “It’s the people that come out to remember what Memorial Day stands for.”

The parade and ceremonies are slated to begin at 9:30 a.m. on Monday. Veterans, volunteers and others will march down Middle Neck Road from Susquehanna Avenue to the Village Green.

At the Village Green, McCann said the USMMA band will play, she and Grand Marshal Mort Zimmerman will deliver “blissfully short” remarks, and there will be a 21-gun salute before veterans and firefighters walk to give a “final salute” to their fallen comrades.

World War II veteran Mort Zimmerman, now 95, will be the Grand Marshal of the Great Neck memorial parade. (Photos courtesy of Zimmerman/Edelson)
World War II veteran Mort Zimmerman, now 95, will be the Grand Marshal of the Great Neck memorial parade. (Photos courtesy of Zimmerman/Edelson)

Zimmerman, 95, served in the only ­European civil affairs regiment during World War II. This took him through France, Belgium and Germany to manage towns taken by the Allied forces, take care of refugees and follow American troops, he said in a previous interview, meaning he had to help bring order to “sheer chaos.”

“It was our responsibility to develop all of the necessary infrastructure that a city requires and of course we supervised it and made sure that it went in a straight line,” Zimmerman, who has resided in Great Neck for more than 50 years, said.

McCann, who herself served in the U.S. Army for more than 25 years, said that among candidates to be the grand marshal, Zimmerman stood out.

“It’s his service,” McCann explained. “We had several people nominated but his bio really, as we say, spoke to us, especially being in a civil affairs command and being forward deployed in a war zone.”

There is reserved seating for U.S. military members and veterans at the Village Green for the ceremony.

For more information, contact Suzette Gray at grays@northhempsteadny.gov.

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