On December 4, 1943, the Saturday Evening Post cover featured Westport illustrator Stevan Dohanos’ painting of our town’s Honor Roll.
It stood in front of the old Town Hall (now Don Memo and Walrus Alley restaurants). The magazine called it “Honoring the Dead.”
In fact, it honored all the Westporters then serving in World War II. In late 1943, victory was not yet assured. It was a terrible time. Many of those whose names were outside Town Hall did not make it home.
Town Hall is now on Myrtle Avenue. Plaques across the street — on Veterans Green — memorialize Westporters killed in several wars. This is the one for World War II:
Veterans Green is also where a ceremony takes place, immediately after today’s parade (approximately 10:30 a.m.). It is sobering and inspiring; mournful and uplifting.
It does not take long. There are a couple of speeches, some rousing march music, the laying of a wreath, the playing of “Taps.”
So many Westporters have sacrificed so much, to ensure the freedoms we have today.
The brief Veterans Green ceremony is one small way by which we can honor them.
If you have been to the Memorial Day ceremony, you know what I mean.
Posted onMay 26, 2024|Comments Off on Memorial Day Parade: Please Send Photos!
The Memorial Day parade is one of Westport’s greatest town events.
Everyone has a favorite spot to watch from. Everyone has a favorite band, float or marcher to photograph.
But why share them only with a few hundred dear pals, casual acquaintances and random how’d-they-get-on-my-list Facebook “friends”?
Tomorrow, let all of Westport see “your” Memorial Day parade. Send a few (not all!) of your photos to “06880” (email: 06880blog@gmail.com). Deadline: 2 p.m. Please include brief identification, if needed, and of course your own name.
I’ll post some (not all!) in the afternoon.
And be creative! We want special photos, for our special parade.
Seen along the Memorial Day parade route.
Comments Off on Memorial Day Parade: Please Send Photos!
The oyster boat — lovingly cared for by Alan Sterling during his long life, then a Gray’s Creek icon for years after the oysterman’s death, before falling victim to weather and age — was dismantled and removed yesterday.
It had been cast up on land during a very high tide a few months ago.
Nothing remains of Gloria today.
Except many, many memories.
Sic transit gloria mundi.
Gloria, in better days. (Photo/Betsy P. Kahn)
Gloria, after being washed ashore. (Photo/Larry Hoy)
The final journey, in a flatbed truck. (Photo/Larry Hoy)
A celebration of Leonard Everett Fisher’s life is set for June 24 (3 to 6 p.m., Westport Library).
The date is special. It would have been the noted illustrator/artist, longtime civic volunteer and proud World War II veteran’s 100th birthday.
Donations in his and his wife’s name can be made to “Margery & Leonard Everett Fisher Endowment for Children’s Books in the Arts,” c/o Westport Library, 20 Jesup Road, Westport, CT 06880.
Leonard Everett Fisher (Photo/Ted Horowitz)
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From its start as “Saugatuck StoryFest,” the Westport Library’s annual literary festival has grown rapidly.
It’s now the largest annual such even in Connecticut, and one of the biggest in the Northeast.
The 7th edition — set for Friday, September 20 through Sunday, September 22 — will be the most genre-spanning of all.
Headliners include author/essayist/editor Roxane Gay (Bad Feminist, Difficult Women), best-selling writer Christopher Golden (Hellboy, The House of Last Resort), and award-winning author Claire Messud (The Emperor’s Children, This Strange Eventful History).
This year’s StoryFest features a special tribute to the Publishers Weekly editor (and Westport Library friend) Sybil Steinberg, who died earlier this year, and a PitchFest workshop.
Other authors scheduled to appear are Kerstin Bakis, Julia Bartz, Clay Chapman, May Cobb, Rachel Harrison, Isi Hendrix, Don P. Hooper, Gabino Iglesias, Hal Johnson, Chris Knapp, Ryan La Sala, Josh Malerman, GennaRose Nethercott, Anna Noyes, Courtney Preiss, Oliver Radclyffe, Ainissa Ramirez, Shannon C.F. Rogers, Hugh Ryan, Peng Shepherd, and Diana Sussman.
Jennifer Baker will conduct a live recording of her podcast, Minorities in Publishing, while editor Ellen Datlow returns to the Library’s Trefz Forum for a panel discussion with authors from her latest anthology.
Additional attendees will be announced throughout the summer.
Click here for tickets, and more information.
StoryFest headliners (from left): Claire Messud, Roxane Gay, Christopher Golden.
The line of march is set, for the Memorial Day parade (Monday, May 27, 9 a.m.).
Westporters know this is a community highlight of the year. If you’ve never been: Don’t miss it. Find a spot along the route — from Saugatuck Avenue on Riverside Avenue, right on the Post Road, left on Myrtle Avenue — and enjoy the music of marching bands, the fun of tons of kids, the spirit of civic groups, and a salute to first responders and (of course) our veterans.
Be sure to stick around for the half-hour ceremony on Veterans Green, opposite Town Hall. It’s meaningful and important. The speeches are brief, but the service is inspiring.
The parade includes:
Connecticut Alumni Drum & Bugle Corps
Westport Police Department
Westport Volunteer EMS
Westport-Weston CERT
Grand Marshal Charles P. Lamb
Dignitaries: Selectwomen, RTM members
Westport Community Band
Connecticut Veterans Honor Guard
August Matthias Post 63 – American Legion & Joseph J. Clinton Post 399 – Veterans of Foreign Wars, with VFW Auxiliary 399 Westport Float
Scouts BSA Westport
Nash Drum Corps
Westport Fire Department
Y’s Men of Westport/Weston
League of Women Voters
Staples High School Marching Band
Staples High School Cheerleaders
Westport Library
Girl Scouts of Westport
Westport PAL
Westport Soccer
Westport Little League
Coleytown/Bedford Combined Middle School Bands
Westport Woman’s Club
St. Paul Christian School
CLUB203
My Team Triumph
Knights of Columbus – Westport
Westport Rotary Club
Suzuki Music School
Westport Pride
United Methodist Church of Westport-Weston
Builders Beyond Boarders
Westport Garden Club
Westport Sunrise Rotary
Westport Transit District
Col. John Chester Fife & Drum Corps
Westport Weston Family YMCA
Masonic Lodge
Junior Colonial Fife & Drum Corps of Westbrook, CT
A small part of the 2023 Memorial Day parade (Photo/Charlie Scott)
Igor Pikayzen — Westport’s favorite home-grown violinist — brings his Festival Edelio back to his hometown.
This summer’s 2 concerts have something for everyone: the defiance of Shostakovich, charm of Saint-Saëns, joy of Gershwin, beauty of Brahms and more.
Several talented artists will join the 2005 Staples High School graduate (who went on to Juilliard, then earned a master’s degree from Yale, and a doctor of musical arts at CUNY).
Concerts are June 9 and 16 (7 p.m., Saugatuck Congregational Church). There is a wine reception after each. Click here for more information, and tickets.
Igor Pikayzen
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Judge Frederick Freedman died peacefully at his Westport home on Wednesday. He was 95. .
Born in Bridgeport, he moved with his parents to London for several years, but they returned to the US just before World War II. He Freedman graduated from Bassick High School, and earned a BA from the University of Connecticut, then a law degree from Yale in 1954.
He was a first lieutenant in the Air Force JAG during the Vietnam War.
He practiced law with Brody and Brody, P.C. until 1981 when Governor O’Neill appointed him to the Connecticut Superior Court bench.
In 1992 Judge Freedman was appointed to the Connecticut Appellate Court by Governor Lowell Weicker. He served as chief administrative judge, senior judge judge trial referee.
He retired from the bench in 2012, after 30 years. He then became counsel at Halloran & Sage’s Westport office.
He loved spending time with his family, traveling, good food, reading, playing golf, dogs, and a great joke.
His family says, “Judge Freedman was an honorable, impeccable man, honest, loyal, fair, with a sweet, tender, gentle disposition, and a brilliant mind. He was known for his exceptional sense of humor and his dignity, his fastidious attention to detail, and his wonderful taste in clothes.”
Judge Freedman is survived by his wife of 68 years, Dorothy (née Nevas) of Westport; his children Janet Freedman of Westport; Susan (Rev. Dr. Mark L. Heilshorn) Filan of Newtown, and Ellen (Steven) Nevas Freedman Wilner of New York City, and grandchildren, Eric (Dayane) Zimmerman, Mee Mee and Hallie Filan of Newtown, and Samantha and Kasey Wilner of New York City; brother-in-law and sister-in-law Hon. Alan H. and Janet Nevas of Westport, and nieces and nephews Andrew (Jodie) Nevas, Dr. Debra (Dr. Jonathan Abrams) Nevas and, and Nathaniel (Leslie Radel) Nevas.
Funeral services will be held on Tuesday (May 21, 9:30 a.m., Temple Israel). Burial will follow at Independent Hebrew Cemetery in Norwalk. For more information and to share a condolence message, click here.
And finally … on this day in 1971, “Godspell” opened at New York’s Cherry Lane Theatre. It became the third-longest-running off-Broadway production of its day.
(Day by day, “06880” brings you news, events and more — all Westport, 24/7/365. Please click here to support our work. Thank you!)
William F. Vornkahl III died Friday. He was 93 years old.
Westporters knew — and loved — him as “Bill.”
His other nickname was “Mr. Memorial Day.” For 54 years — ever since 1970 — he organized, orchestrated and led Westport’s annual parade.
It was an enormous undertaking. The moving parts — the marchers, the floats, the route, the ceremony on Veterans Green — were many, and daunting.
But it was a labor of love.
Bill Vornkahl was many things: a Korean War veteran, member of the Westport Veterans Council, volunteer firefighter, Little League coach, member of Staples High School football’s sideline crew.
He was a proud veteran, and an equally proud Westporter. He will be deeply and lovingly missed.
Bill Vornkahl, at last year’s Memorial Day parade. (Photo/Ted Horowitz)
Visitation is set for this Thursday (February 1, 4 to 8 p.m., Harding Funeral Home). Bill’s funeral is Friday (February 2, 11 a.m., St. Paul Church, Easton Road).
In 2018, “06880” honored Bill Vornkahl as our Unsung Hero. Here is that story:
On Monday, Westport celebrates Memorial Day.
We do it with one of the town’s most popular and beloved events of the year: a fun, wonderful and wide-ranging parade, followed by a solemn yet uplifting ceremony across from Town Hall.
It’s a huge undertaking. Hundreds of town employees and volunteers pitch in to make it all work. It seems effortless, but it’s anything but.
None of it would happen, though, without the leadership of Bill Vornkahl.
This will be the Westporter’s 49th year at the helm. When he started in 1970, the parade may have included Spanish-American War veterans. Today there are only a few who served in World War II.
Vornhkahl — now 88 years old — is a Korean War vet. He spent 14 months on the island of Hokkaido, Japan, working as a high-speed radio operator in the 1st Cavalry Division.
In 2013, he was inducted into the Connecticut Veterans Hall of Fame.
Bill Vornkahl
Vornkahl has been a member of the Westport Veterans Council even longer than he’s run the parade: 57 years.
From 1996 to ’99 he was treasurer of Westport’s War Monument Committee, helping place memorials to various wars on Veterans Green.
He joined the Greens Farms Volunteer Fire Company in 1950. He’s served as secretary/treasurer of both that company and Saugatuck Hose Company #4, and as president of the Westport Volunteer Fire Company from 1973 to ’93.
He coached Little League for more than 20 years, and for over a decade was part of the Staples High School football sideline crew.
Vornkahl has dedicated his life to Westport. Of all he’s done, the Memorial Day parade is his special passion. He makes sure it all happens flawlessly.
In 2015, Bill Vornkahl and 3 Girl Scout Daisies recited the Pledge of Allegiance.
Of course, the one thing he can’t control is the weather. The last 2 years, predictions of rain have canceled the parade, and moved the ceremonies indoors.
You may have seen him inside Town Hall, introducing the color guard, bands and speakers.
This Monday, we all hope he’ll be outdoors on Veterans Green, doing the same.
He’ll be busy — as he has been every Memorial Day since 1970. So now is the best time to thank him for all he does.
Veterans usually don’t like honors. But Bill Vornkahl is a true Unsung Hero.
In 2020, COVID canceled Westport’s Memorial Day parade.
But our town did not forget its veterans — or Bill Vornkahl. “06880” That day, “06880” reported:
This might have been a lonely Memorial Day for Bill Vornkahl.
As “06880” reported this morning, the 90-year-old Korean War veteran recently lost his wife of 65 years.
And this year — for the first time in the 50 years he has organized Westport’s annual parade and tribute to fallen service members — the entire event was canceled, due to COVID.
But his family arranged a socially distanced cookout in the driveway of his Cross Highway home.
And in mid-morning — just like every year at Town Hall — Vornkahl heard “The Star-Spangled Banner” and “Taps.”
Nick Rossi sings the national anthem.
The national anthem was sung stirringly by Nick Rossi. The 2019 Staples High School graduate — now a student at Boston College — is a veteran of Veteran’s Green. He played and sang at last year’s ceremony.
The mournful brass notes were sounded by Sam Atlas. The 2018 Staples grad is a trumpet major at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where she plays in the orchestra, wind ensemble and chamber groups.
Sam Atlas plays “Taps.”
It was a fitting tribute for the man who is Westport’s “Mr. Memorial Day.” And he responded as any soldier would:
It was a Bill Vornkahl tradition to close every Memorial Day ceremony with “It Is The Soldier,” a poem by Charles H. Province. “06880” is honored to post this, in honor of “Mr. Memorial Day,” Bill Vornkahl.
It is the soldier, not the minister
Who has given us freedom of religion.
It is the soldier, not the reporter
Who has given us freedom of press.
It is the soldier, not the poet
Who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the soldier, not the campus organizer
Who has given us freedom to protest.
It is the soldier, not the lawyer
Who has given us the right to a fair trial.
It is the soldier, not the politician
Who has given us the right to vote.
It is the soldier who salutes the flag,
Who serves beneath the flag,
And whose coffin is draped by the flag,
Who allows the protester to burn the flag.
If you’ve been in town a while, you know the Memorial Day parade is one of the best community events of the year.
If you moved here recently — or for some reason have never seen the parade — don’t miss this one.
It’s a uniquely Westport, genuinely American event. First responders, marching bands and fife and drum corps are joined by just about every organization in town. (Including, of course, nearly every kid in town.)
But the focus is on the day’s honorees: our veterans.
Navy veteran Rick Benson (Photo/Ted Horowitz)
A few from World War II — the last representatives of The Greatest Generation — will ride proudly. This year’s grand marshal — 99-year-old Ben Pepper — won a Purple Heart at the Battle of the Bulge.
They’ll be joined by soldiers, sailors, pilots and nurses from the Korean, Vietnam, and Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. The applause they earn is just a small measure of our respect for them.
Floats honor the veterans too. The Y’s Men are (as always) odds-on favorites to win. But every other group creates their floats with creativity and flair too.
The Y’s Men’s float won the 2021 contest — as usual.
The parade begins at 9 a.m. tomorrow (Monday), at Saugatuck Elementary School.
It travels north on Riverside Avenue; takes a right onto Post Road East, over the Ruth Steinkraus Cohen Bridge, and continues to Myrtle Avenue.
It turns left on Myrtle, heads past the reviewing stand in front of Town Hall, then snakes around to Main Street before ending in Parker Harding Plaza. (It does not stop at Town Hall!)
Everyone is invited then to Veterans Green across from Town Hall, for a brief but meaningful ceremony. It begins around 10:30. There are a couple of short speeches; a 21-gun salute; the laying of a memorial wreath, and music from the Staples High School band.
Honoring our veterans, on Veterans Green. (Photo/Andrew Colabella)
The parade and ceremony are Westport at its best.
The entire town should be there to salute all who served and sacrificed, making it possible for us to be there.
Then, in the afternoon, the welcome-summer parties can begin.
Here’s the line-up for tomorrow’s parade:
HONOR DIVISION
1. Connecticut Alumni Drum & Bugle Corps
2. Westport Police Department
3. Westport Volunteer EMS
4. Westport-Weston CERT
5. Grand Marshal Ben Pepper, U.S. Army World War II
Police and firefighters salute. (Photo/Nico Eisenberger)
1st DIVISION
6. Dignitaries – Selectwomen, RTM members
7. Westport Community Band
8. Connecticut Veterans Honor Guard
9. August Matthias Post 63 – American Legion
10. Joseph J. Clinton Post 399 – Veterans of Foreign Wars; VFW Auxiliary 399
RTM members proudly marched last year.
2nd DIVISION
11. Nash Drum Corps
12. Westport Fire Department
13. Y’s Men of Westport & Weston
14. Westport Little League
15. Remarkable Theater
16. Staples High School marching band
17. Staples High School cheerleaders
18. Staples Tuition Grants
19. Westport Library
20. Westport Soccer Association
21. Westport PAL
22. Coleytown/Bedford combined middle school bands
23. Westport Woman’s Club
24. St. Paul Christian School
Tons of kids; lots of music. This was the combined Bedford and Coleytown Middle School bands, in 2019. (Photo/Sarah Tamm)
3rd DIVISION
25. Knights of Columbus – Westport
26. Suzuki Music School
27. Girl Scouts/Cub Scouts of America
28. Builders Beyond Boarders
29. Sister Cities/Lyman, Ukraine
30. Circle of Friends
31. Westport Sunrise Rotary
32. Col. John Chester Fife & Drum Corps
33. Boy Scouts of Connecticut – Westport
34. Masonic Lodge
35. United Methodist Church of Westport-Weston
36. Westport Weston Family YMCA
37. My Team Triumph
38. Westport Rotary Club
39. League of Women Voters of Westport
40. Junior Colonial Fife & Drum Corps of Westbrook
Westport’s Memorial Day parade has been a town highlight for nearly a century.
But coincidentally, 2 parade photos from the same year — 1965 — popped into my inbox within a few days of each other last week.
One — posted by Paul Ehrismann on Facebook — shows a gaggle of kids and parents, turning the corner from the Post Road (State Street) onto Myrtle Avenue:
Their outfits — today, quite politically incorrect and culturally misappropriated — show they were part of the Westport YMCA’s “Indian Guide” program.
I was never an Indian Guide, so I don’t know whether they learned actual history or stereotypical myths about Machamux, the Pequots, and other people and tribes who lived here nearly 4 centuries ago.
But if I had to guess …
The other photo came from Adam Stolpen:
In 1965, Adam was a Staples High School student — and the one delivering a Memorial Day address. The site for the ceremony in those days was Jesup Green. (Today it’s at Veterans Green, across from Town Hall.)
Others in the photo include Westport resident and former Connecticut Governor John Davis Lodge (all in white, with a Navy cap); World War I veteran and grand marshal E.O. Nigel Cholmeley-Jones (to the right of Governor Lodge, with hands folded), and Temple Israel’s rabbi, Byron T. Rubenstein (seated at far left).
Adam thinks the man in uniform on the far right may be parade director Frank Cunningham.
The Memorial Day parade has endured for years. But over the past few years, attendance has been a bit down.
Yet it’s one of those things that makes Westport feel like a small town — and a very American one.
The parade begins Monday at 9 a.m., at Saugatuck Elementary School. The route takes it down Riverside Avenue, then onto the Post Road and Myrtle Avenue, ending at Town Hall.
A very inspiring ceremony — with brief speeches, patriotic music, a 21-gun salute and a tribute to grand marshal, 99-year-old World War II veteran Ben Pepper — follows, around 10:30 at Veterans Green.
Don’t miss it! And maybe 58 years from now — in 2083 — your picture will be part of a “Friday Flashback” too.
(“06880” is as “Westport” as the Memorial Day parade. Please click here to support our work. Thank you!)
The longtime (since 1958!) Westporter had kept a low profile. Hardly anyone here knew that he was a World War II paratrooper — let alone that he earned a Purple Heart at the Battle of the Bulge.
He’d never even participated in a Memorial Day parade.
This year, he will.
And he’ll have a special seat of honor. “Private Benjamin” is Westport’s 2023 Memorial Day parade grand marshal.
Ben Pepper: in the Army.
Pepper was born in the Bronx in 1923. He was drafted into the Army on New Year’s Day 1943, and trained as a paratrooper. He would have participated in D-Day, but a broken back suffered in an earlier jump put him in a near-full body cast.
He participated in the Battle of the Bulge though, in that frigid winter of 1945.
Ben Pepper’s Purple Heart, dog tag and other mementoes. (Photo/Dan Woog)
After discharge, he answered an ad to be a photographer. In 1953 he opened his own studio in Stamford. In 1958 he bought property in Westport. Nearly 70 years later, he lives in the same house off Cross Highway.
In 1960 Pepper and his wife Frances helped build Temple Israel on Coleytown Road. They spent the rest of their married life raising David (a Staples Class of 1966 graduate), traveling (including China before it opened to the West, the USSR, Africa and Asia), and working.
He still has his medals, his dog tag, his photos — and his Army jacket — but he has always been low-key about them.
Ben Pepper (Photo/Dan Woog)
This Memorial Day, Westport honors one of our last living World War II heroes.
The parade — with Ben Pepper as special honoree — begins at 9 a.m. on Monday, May 29. A special ceremony follows immediately, at Veterans Green across from Town Hall.
Ted Diamond — proud World War II veteran, longtime local volunteer, former 2nd selectman, Memorial Day parade grand marshal, and beloved Westporter – died Tuesday night, of complications from COVID. He was 105 years old.
Ted died less than 5 months after his wife Carol. She was 100. They were married for 75 years.
An Army Air Corps combat navigator with the 15th Air Force, Ted flew 50 World War II missions over highly secured military installations across Europe. He often led groups of 28 B-17s.
Seven years ago — on his 98th birthday — Ted received France’s highest medal: the insignia of Chevalier (knight) of the Legion of Honor.
The award — established by Napoleon in 1802 — acknowledged his enduring contribution to the success of Operation Dragoon, a military campaign to free the nation from Nazi domination.
Ted Diamond, at this year’s Memorial Day ceremony.
He spent more than two-third of his life — 67 years — in Westport. In addition to 3 terms as 2nd selectman, he was an RTM member, and volunteered on numerous town committees, commissions and boards.
In 2007, Ted served as grand marshal of the Memorial Day parade. He attended nearly every one since moving here — including this past May. Surrounded by admirers, he always made sure to acknowledge the sacrifices of others.
Ted Diamond in May, at this year’s Memorial Day parade. (Photo/Ted Horowitz)
In 2019, 102-year-old Ted was honored at a Bedford Middle School Veterans Day ceremony. He met with 8th graders, and — in firm, clear tones — described his wartime experiences, and the lessons learned from them.
A memorial service will be held at a later date. A full obituary will be posted when it is available.
Ted Diamond and his wife Carol, at a 2018 “town hall” meeting with Congressman Jim Himes.
The doughboy statue on Veterans Green (Photo/Ted Horowitz)
BONUS FEATURE: Nick Pisarro, Jr. filmed the entire Memorial Day parade — and then edited it down to a minute. It’s followed by Staples High School graduate Nick Rossi singing the national anthem.
Whether you missed the parade, or want to relive it again — click below.
Everyone knows — or should know — that the William F. Cribari Bridge honors the long-time traffic officer who, with flair, dramatic moves and plenty of smarts directed traffic from and over the Saugatuck River span that now bears his name.
But only folks with long memories remember that Bill Cribari was also a high-strutting major with Nash Engineering’s crack drum and bugle corps.
He was at his finest every Memorial Day.
Here — decades later, thanks to his daughter, Sharon Saccary — is a wonderful shot of Bill Cribari: man, major, myth.
NOTE: I’m not sure what year this was from. I never recall the Memorial Day parade route going this direction past what is now Patagonia.
When the Westport Police Department saw a couple of kids had set up a lemonade stand on South Compo Road, and traffic was pulling over, they …
… pulled over too.
They learned the youngsters were raisin money for the Connecticut Humane Society. So the WPD posted a photo on social media, urging everyone to stop by.
We saw this too late to help. But it’s never too late to thank young Westporters like these 2 — or our always helpful, very caring Westport Police.
Many of the thousands of visitors to the 49th annual Westport Fine Arts Festival agreed: This was the best ever.
The (almost the entire time) great weather, the holiday weekend, the dozens of excellent artists, and the back-together-again vibe all contributed to the success of the weekend.
So did the great organizational skills and promotion of the Westport Downtown Association.
Congrats to all. And of course to the Best in Show artist: Dean DiMarzo.
2022 WEstport Fine Arts Festival Best in Show: Dean DieMarzo. (Photo/Tom Lowrie)
Dick Lowenstein was intrigued by yesterday’s lead story. Tom Feeley honored a Westport VFW friend, whose life was saved in World War II by a guard in a German prisoner of war camp. The man — an American, who had been conscripted by the Nazis — altered Tom’s friend’s dog tags, erasing a reference to the soldier’s Jewish faith. That saved him from execution the following day.
Dick writes:
My uncle Donahl Breitman (born Heschel, later known as Harry) was a Brooklyn Jew who served in the 743rd Tank Battalion. They landed in Europe during the D-Day invasion.
His dog tag lacked the “H” for Hebrew. (The religion indicator was apparently optional. “C” for Catholic and “P” for Protestant were the other choices.)
Because he spoke Yiddish and understood German, he was tasked with interrogating German prisoners. With the war near an end, my uncle was asked to accompany his commanding officer to meet a Russian unit approaching from the east. My uncle and the Russian noncom communicated in Yiddish.
His older Russian-born cousin, Marine Capt. David Kipness, fought in World War I, and was awarded the Silver Star for gallantry in the Battle of Belleau Wood.
Dick Lowenstein’s uncle’s dog tag — without the religious indicator.
Mark LeMoult, was killed last week, in an automobile accident on Saugatuck Avenue, while driving his cherished 1968 Pontiac Catalina He was 58, and lived in Norwalk.
Born in Bronxville, New York, he was raised here and was a lifelong area resident. He attended Staples High School and graduated from The Culinary Institute of America.
Mark was a highly esteemed chef. His culinary career began at age 13, squeezing limes at Viva Zapata. Mark worked at Café Christina in Westport, the Hudson River Club and Rainbow Room in New York, and Tamarack Country Club in Greenwich. He had been the executive chef at the Field Club of Greenwich for the past 14 years. He met his fiancée Elizabeth 21 years ago, while working at Stamford’s Beacon Restaurant.
One of the highlights of Mark’s career was serving as the president of the Club Chefs of Connecticut from 2006-2010.
Mark enjoyed camping, river rafting and spending as much quality time with his sons as possible. Many “Tuesday Dad Days” were spent barbecuing and cheering on the New York Yankees.
His favorite places to visit were Lake George and Cape Cod with family. He loved to get his hands dirty planting in his garden. He cherished his dogs Leo and Teddy, and loved mornings at the dog park and walks through the neighborhood.
He was a cigar aficionado, and relished his relaxing evening. Mark and Elizabeth enjoyed entertaining in the backyard with friends and family around the firepit, concerts at the Levitt Pavilion, and experiencing wonderful meals at local restaurants.
His family says, “All those who knew him will always remember his roaring laugh, unyielding hugs, and his gentle heart and soul.”
Mark is survived by his sons Scott of Stamford and Eric of Fairfield; fiancée Elizabeth Kenny of Norwalk; brothers, Michael (Mary) LeMoult of Trumbull, Chris (Carole) of Trumbull, and Kevin of Murrells Inlet, South Carolina; the mother of his children, Ellen LeMoult of Fairfield; stepfather, Bert Furgess of Murrells Inlet, SC, and several nieces and nephews. In addition to his parents, he was predeceased by his sister Kelly.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated June 1 (10 a.m., Our Lady of the Assumption Church, Fairfield). Interment will follow in Oak Lawn Cemetery.
Friends may greet the family Tuesday, May 31 (4 to 8 p.m., Spear-Miller Funeral Home, Fairfield). Cheerful attire is encouraged to honor the vivacious life that Mark lived.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in Mark’s memory to the Culinary Institute of America’s scholarship fund: www.ciachef.edu/give. For information or to offer an online condolence, click here.
Everyone is at today’s Memorial Day parade — except these guys. They’re cooped up at Wakeman Town Farm. But they do make a nice, tight “Westport … Naturally” shot.
And finally …. today is Memorial Day. As we enjoy our holiday — at the beach, at backyard barbecues, with friends and family — let us not forget what this day is rally about.
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