(VERNON, Connecticut) – There will be three Memorial Day observances in Vernon.
The first is on Thursday, May 25 at Grove Hill Cemetery, off Cemetery Avenue in Rockville.
The Alden Skinner Camp of the Sons of Union Veterans will place flags at the grave of Civil War veterans at Grove Hill Cemetery beginning at 6 p.m., then at 7 p.m. conduct a brief memorial service at the grave of Col. Thomas Burpee, a Vernon man and commander of the 21st Connecticut Volunteers who was fatally wounded by a rebel sharpshooter at the Battle of Cold Harbor and died on June 9, 1864. The ceremony will include Civil War reenactors firing a salute, a wreath laying at Burpee’s grave, and a reading of the names of Vernon and Rockville’s Civil War veterans. (More information about the museum)
On Sunday, May 28, what is perhaps Connecticut’s shortest Memorial Day parade will step off from Talcottville Church, 10 Elm Hill Road in Vernon, and travel the short distance to Mount Hope Cemetery. The parade begins at 9 a.m. and includes vintage cars, fife and drum corps and anyone who’d like to march. People join in and are part of the parade rather than stand along the sidelines and watch. The ceremony at the cemetery includes a recitation of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. (The parade forms up at 8:30 a.m. in the church parking lot.)
On Monday, May 29, Vernon’s Memorial Day parade steps off at 10:15 a.m. after a brief ceremony at Grove Hill Cemetery. The parade goes from Hale Street near the cemetery to Grove Street, to East Main Street and into downtown Rockville. The parade wraps around Central Park in front of Vernon Town Hall, where a Memorial Day observance will take place after the parade.
The grand marshal is Vernon resident and Vietnam War veteran Edward King, who built a stone wall at Henry Park to honor his fellow soldiers who did not return from Vietnam. He was a radio operator with the 25th Infantry Division.
The Rockville High School and Vernon Center Middle School bands will march in the parade, along with veterans, firefighters, scouts and others. A Connecticut Air National Guard flyover has been requested and is dependent on the day’s weather.