The photo below shows the World War II memorial on Veterans Green, across from Westport Town Hall, where a ceremony takes place after today’s parade (approximately 10:30 a.m.). Other monuments there honor veterans of other wars.
If you’ve been to a Memorial Day ceremony on Veterans Green, you know how meaningful and powerful it is. If you’ve never been: make this the year.
My father’s first cousin grew up on the family farm that’s now Hunt Club Lane. He had a fiancée, but World War II broke out and he left for four years to go to war. When he came back, his once fiancée was married to someone else. He never married because he lost the one he truly loved. That was one of the ‘casualties’ of the war for him personally.
I’m on the same page as Jack Backiel. Those of us who know stories should post them. Angie Carusone married Donald Ball. She was a distant cousin. He went off to war and never came back. They had no children and she remained a widow until she died an old woman. I looked for an obit to share and could not find. He appears with his siblings on the 1940 census at age 23. I heard about Liberty Tremonte as an adult because his brother Al had a great auto repair shop across from Playhouse Square, and I used them exclusively for many years until they closed shop. All I found about him in our history was that he had a sports award at Staples named after him so he must have been a standout in high school sports. Al told me “it killed my mother when he died”. If I find any obits today so we can actually remember these people, I will post. When we were attacked on December 7, 1941 and FDR made his “ Day will live in infamy” speech it galvanized the country and compelled men everywhere to join the military and most saw action. Today, I hope we pause to remember.
I don’t give up on friendships or relationships easily, but when I do, it’s because they gave up first.
Mary, I knew a Tom Tremonte, who lived on Bauer Place. He was probably a 1966 Staples graduate. My guess is he’s from the same family you mentioned.