3 Memorial Day Events Are A Tradition In Vernon

VERNON, CT — Vernon is keeping up its traditions with three Memorial Day observances.

The first is on tap for Thursday at Grove Hill Cemetery. 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 about 6 p.m. At 7 p.m. they will conduct a brief memorial service at the grave of Col. Thomas Burpee, a Vernon resident and commander of the 21st Connecticut Volunteers. Burpee was fatally wounded by a Confederate sharpshooter at the Battle of Cold Harbor and died on June 9, 1864.

The ceremony will include Civil War re-enactors firing a salute, a wreath-laying at Burpee's grave, and a reading of the names of Vernon and Rockville’s Civil War veterans. Click here to learn more about Vernon’s Civil War Museum.

On Sunday, May 25, what is perhaps Connecticut’s shortest Memorial Day parade will step off from

Talcottville Church, 10 Elm Hill Road in Vernon.

It will travel the short distance to Mount Hope Cemetery.

The cparade begins at 9 a.m. and includes vintage cars, fife and drum corps and anyone else 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 reading of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. (The parade forms up at 8:30 a.m. in the church parking lot.)

On Monday, May 26, Vernon’s Memorial Day parade steps off at 9:30 a.m. at Northeast School and proceeds the short distance to Grove Hill Cemetery, where a ceremony to honor veterans takes place.

After the ceremony, the parade forms back up on Hale Street and continues from Hale Street to Grove Street, to East Main Street and into downtown Rockville. The parade wraps around Central Park in front of Vernon Town Hall.

A Memorial Day observance then takes place at the veterans memorial in the park. Connecticut Air National Guard C-130s are expected to fly over Rockville between 10:30 and 11 a.m., weather permitting.

The parade grand marshal is Mike Gardner, a 26-year Navy veteran, Vernon native and former commander of the local American Legion Post. During his time in the Navy, he served in combat aboard a mine sweeper during the Persian Gulf War. He was wounded in action and awarded the Purple Heart and Bronze Star.

The Rockville High School and Vernon Center Middle School bands will march in the parade, along with veterans, firefighters, scouts and others.