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HomeLife In the BerkshiresTHEN & NOW:...

THEN & NOW: Memorial Day in South County

As Daniel Webster once wrote, “Let their remembrance be as lasting as the land they honored.”
Written by Gary Leveille
NOW: Veterans march in 2025 Memorial Day parade. Photo by Gary Leveille.

Memorial Day ceremonies and parades are held to honor and remember all of the veterans who gave up their lives for our country. May their sacrifice never be forgotten. As Daniel Webster once wrote, “Let their remembrance be as lasting as the land they honored.” The 2025 Memorial Day photograph above, and those from the past shown below, feature veterans participating in various parades and ceremonies over past decades in southern Berkshire County.

THEN: Veteran James Parrish dressed in a Revolutionary War-era uniform during the 2021 Memorial Day celebration in New Marlborough. Parrish assisted with the installation and refurbishing of monuments honoring all veterans from New Marlborough. Photo by Gary Leveille.
THEN: Veterans gather at Great Barrington Town Hall during the 2016 Memorial Day ceremony. Photo by Gary Leveille.
THEN: Veterans marching at the 2012 Memorial Day parade in Great Barrington. Photo by Gary Leveille.
THEN: A scene from Great Barrington’s 250th anniversary celebration in 2011. Photo by Gary Leveille.
THEN: Veterans and neighbors gather at Great Barrington’s Bicentennial Parade in 1961. Photo by Lucien Aigner, courtesy of the Great Barrington Historical Society.
THEN: Undated Great Barrington photograph circa 1940s or early 1950s. The Amoco gas station in the background is now NBT Bank. Photo courtesy of Thomas O’Gara.
THEN: Grateful residents of Sheffield gather along concrete-paved Route 7 during the 1946 Memorial Day Parade. Francis Kersey is the grand marshal on horseback. Photo courtesy of the Sheffield Historical Society.
THEN: Parade participants march past the intersection of Main and Railroad Streets in Great Barrington during the town’s 150th anniversary in 1911. Photo courtesy of Gary Leveille.
THEN: Rare Great Barrington Civil War poster. Photo courtesy of the Great Barrington Historical Society.
THEN: Aging Civil War veterans pose in front of Great Barrington town hall in this undated photo. Photo courtesy of the Great Barrington Historical Society.
THEN: Veterans gather at the Civil War statue named “Winged Victory” in this undated photograph taken at Great Barrington Town Hall. Photo courtesy of the Great Barrington Historical Society.
THEN: Civil War reenactment ceremony in South Egremont circa 2015. Veteran Tom Gage is flanked by Marj Wexler and Lynn Wood. Photo by Gary Leveille.
THEN: Tom Gage addresses Civil War reenactors in Egremont circa 2015. Photo by Gary Leveille.
THEN: In this Egremont Civil War reenactment circa 2015, a young widow mourns the loss of her soldier husband. Photo courtesy Gary Leveille.
THEN: James Parrish, Diane Fratalone, and Fuller Walker gather in North Egremont during the late 1960s to begin preliminary preparations for the 1976 bicentennial celebration of the Knox Trail expedition. The Knox Trail is a network of roads and paths which traces the route of Colonel Henry Knox’s legendary caravan of cannons and artillery from Lake Champlain to a Continental Army camp overlooking Boston Massachusetts in the early days of the American Revolutionary War. Fuller Walker was chosen to represent Henry Knox in the New York portion of the reenactment. Preparations are well underway for the upcoming 250th celebration. Photo by Joe Elliott.
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