Greenwich Hibernians Install St. Patrick's Parade Grand Marshal

GREENWICH, CT - The Greenwich Hibernian Association installed Cathy Lavaty as the Grand Marshal of the 42nd annual Greenwich St. Patrick’s Parade at the organization’s annual St. Patrick’s dinner dance on Saturday.

This year’s St. Patrick’s dinner dance also acknowledged the 100th anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising in Ireland. The Easter Rising led to the eventual establishment of Ireland as an independent country. Memorials to the Rising are being held across the world and will culminate on April 24, the 100th anniversary of the start of the Rising.

Lavaty was installed by last year’s Grand Marshal Brian O’Connor in front of a sellout crowd of friends, relatives and members of the Greenwich Hibernians.

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The parade will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday, March 20 with the blowing of the whistle to start the parade in front of Greenwich Town Hall.

Lavaty is a lifelong Greenwich resident. She graduated St. Mary Grammar School and St. Mary High School before attending Berkley Business School in White Plains, NY. After graduation she went to work for the National Broadcasting Company in New York where she worked for 38 years before retiring in 2005. At NBC Lavaty worked in the news division, first as program manager for the Nightly News, then on the Today show and finally for Dateline.

Lavaty is involved with her church, St. Mary of Greenwich, both as a Trustee and as Chair of the parish Social Concerns Committee. She is a board member of the NBC New York Employees Federal Credit Union and is also a Board member of the Today Show Charitable Foundation, Inc.

She met her husband, Walter Kelly, a retired New York City Police officer on St. Patrick’s Day 1975. They were married in 1980. Last September, the couple took their first trip to Ireland.

Lavaty’s Irish roots go back to her grandparents George and Catherine Kelly who came from County Cork in Ireland in the late 1800s. The family home was on Oakridge Street in Greenwich.

Parade information and updates can be found on the Greenwich Hibernian’s website: www.greenwichhibernians.org

Contributed photos: Cathy Lavaty and Brian O’Connor; past Grand Marshals: in back, from left, John Halpin; Frank Kelly; James Dougherty; James Heavey; John Kavanagh and Brian O’Connor; in front, from left, Kevin Conboy; Lavaty and Patrick Waide.