Nearly two dozen recently deceased community members will be honored when the 2016 Throggs Neck St. Patrick’s Day Parade steps off.
Families and friends of 21 honorary grand marshals, people being posthumously remembered during the 18th annual parade, will be marching when it steps off at noon on Sunday, March 13 at East Tremont and Lafayette avenues.
The parade reviewing stand will be located at Harding and East Tremont avenues.
Loved ones of several of the honorary grand marshals said they would march in groups to celebrate their lives during the festive community celebration.
They will join grand marshals Noreen and David Kilkenny, honored clergy Fr. Christopher Devron and scores of civic associations and community groups, as well as thousands of spectators.
Danny Boyle, the son of honorary grand marshal Carol Boyle, said that he and his brother, his brother’s family, and his girlfriend and her family would all be marching to honor his mother.
“It will be a very festive day… a celebration of her life,” said Danny Boyle, who said that the family has had other honorary grand marshal remembered in past parades as well.
She would have been thrilled to know she was being remembered by a parade going through Throggs Neck, where she raised her family and where her children left their marks, her son said.
Patty Murphy, the daughter of honorary grand marshal, said that her father Joseph Murphy Sr. said that he used to march in the parade as part of St. Benedict’s Knights of Columbus chapter, where he was one a grand knight.
“I think he liked the sense of community and the sense of togetherness during the parade,” said Patty Murphy, who added that her family will be marching, along with her cousins.
Many in Throggs Neck may remember her father as an organizer of blood drives, and also as the equipment manager for the New York Rangers who brought the Stanley Cup to the neighborhood after the team won in 1994.
Honorary grand marshal Michael Martz attended the parade every year. Kevin Martz said his dad liked to see families in the neighborhood coming together.
His son added that his dad especially liked seeing members of the FDNY in the parade because he was was a retired fireman.
Kevin said that many family members and friends want to march in his father’s memory.
“My dad helped out a lot of people and they want to march in his honor,” said Kevin Martz.
Marianne O’Hara Ryan, daughter of honorary grand marshal Teresa O’Hara, said that her family would be marching, along with staff from Jeanne Jugan Residence, where her mother lived.
“We are all marching; we have a huge banner,” she said, adding that family is coming in from Long Island, New Jersey and Connecticut and that her mother’s nine grandchildren will be carrying the banner.
The honorary grand marshals for the parade are: Margaret Babcock, Carol Boyle, Monica Burns, John Byrne, Charlie Capezuti, Robert Connolly, Dan Cotter, Ann Devany, Elizabeth Kelleher, Thomas Laughlin, Michael Martz, John Mullins, Joseph Murphy, Teresa O’Hara, Daniel O’Shea, George Peragine, Benny Randazzo, Anthony Riccardella, Mildred Scott, Ethel Tarpey and Alice Tell.
