Memorial Day Parade Won't Pass By Freehold's Alice McCobb

FREEHOLD, NJ — Alice McCobb, chairperson of the Freehold Memorial Day Parade Committee, received a salute of her own at the State House in Trenton recently.

McCobb has been a member of the committee for more than 40 years and will be chairing her 35th parade in May of 2023.

She is known for her catchphrase "It doesn't rain on my parade," and that positive thinking may be working. Morning rains have usually cleared and only one impending lighting storm in the 1990s was enough of a concern to cancel the parade.

To recognize her dedication, state Sen. Vin Gopal (Monmouth County) and the New Jersey Senate recognized her work at a ceremony on the Senate floor on Monday, Oct. 17.

Freehold's Memorial Day Parade is one of the most elaborate parades in the state and Gopal brought thanks from the state Senate:

"We thank Alice for many, many years of dedication and hard work and almost always perfect weather," Gopal said.

"Alice always says 'It never rains on my parade,' and we know that to be very true," he added.

McCobb said anticipation of the presentation on the floor of the Senate definitely made her nervous.

"I was very nervous. It was intimidating. It's a big deal to be asked to go there. I guess I made it to the big time," she said with a laugh.

She was joined by her daughter Amanda, who is the vice chairperson of the parade committee and never misses a beat in organizing the event with her mother. Her husband, Patrick, watched a livestream of the event, as did other family and friends.

Freehold Borough congratulated her on its Facebook page: "Congratulations again on this recognition, for working so hard to honor our service members and give us all a little more Borough Pride," the borough said.

McCobb has a lifelong connection to Freehold: Born Alice Hakim, McCobb lived in Freehold since age two, according to her bio written by her daughter. She is a 1976 graduate of Freehold High School.

McCobb joined the Freehold Borough Recreation Commission, and through the commission became a part of the subcommittee that organized the Memorial Day Parade. Sometime in the mid-1980s, the parade committee split off from the Recreation Commission and McCobb went with it, serving the parade ever since.

By the 1988 parade she was in charge. She has chaired the parade ever since, even after giving birth to her daughter just six weeks before the 1989 parade.

Although unofficially celebrated in the years immediately following the Civil War, Decoration Day, as it was then known, was officially declared to be celebrated on May 30, 1868.

The Freehold Memorial Day Parade will be celebrating its 149th parade this May, and is one of the largest and longest consecutively running Memorial Day Parades in New Jersey, McCobb said.

She said it's one of the top 11 oldest parades in the nation, based on the committee's research.

Freehold has long been a center of horse culture in the county - and that even figured in the early days of the parade, McCobb said.

In one of the earliest parades in Freehold, beginning soon after the Civil War, it was led by the horse of Freehold native Major Peter Vrendenburgh, bearing the scars of her service – a bullet wound from the same battle that killed her rider, and a U.S. brand on her flank.

The Freehold Memorial Day Parade averages around 70 marching units each year, including veterans, dignitaries, youth groups, bands, fire/rescue units, and more. This past year there was a Navy flyover.

One of the things that McCobb is most proud of is that the parade has hosted two New Jersey governors – Christine Whitman in 1999, and Phil Murphy in 2021.

And her wish for the 150th anniversary of the parade that the President of the United States will be a guest of the parade.

She said there may be some logistical challenges, but she'd like to see it happen.

As she said, "150 years is a long time. If the President can make it, that would be such an honor. The parade's only an hour long," she added hopefully.

McCobb said her favorite part of the parade has been the flag-draped caisson that has preceded the parade since the mid-2000s. She believes that this feature is the true parade.

She said she always has in mind the rider-less horse and caisson drawn at President John F. Kennedy's funeral procession.

"It give me chills to think of it even now," she said.

The point of the parade is to pay tribute to the lost. And even when pandemic restrictions were at their height, the caisson went down the parade route in 2020 in a single, solemn tribute, she recalled.

"The hooves of the rider-less horse, the bells chiming to an empty street. I have to say that may have been my best parade," she said.