Cherokee Nation twins share Will Rogers Days Parade Grand Marshal duties

 

Will Rogers was proud of his Cherokee heritage and often wrote and talked about his roots. Combining a part of his heritage with the Will Rogers Days Parade theme “Will Rogers Says: ‘Support Our Troops,’” Vietnam war veterans Cherokee twins Rod and Jim Lacie will be Grand Marshals. Serving as Parade Marshal will be John Blackwood, retired Army and Air Force veteran of 24 years.

The parade, an annual event for most of the 73 years since the first Will Rogers Days event Nov. 4, 1938, when the Will Rogers Memorial Museum opened, will be 4 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 5. Hosted by Claremore Reveille Rotary, the parade route is from the Claremore Expo-Recreation Center on Veterans Parkway onto Will Rogers Boulevard and through downtown Claremore.

Rod and Jim Lacie, Army veterans, received the Cherokee Medal of Patriotism at the October Cherokee Nation Tribal council meeting in Tahlequah.

Born Dec. 1, 1945 in Westville, the sons of Albert and Loy Bell Lacy were 19 when they were drafted in October 1965. Together they were sent to Fort Polk, La., then to Fort Rucker, Ala.

They were separated and Rod was assigned to Fort Benning, Ga., and Jim was sent to Vietnam to join the 193rd Aviation Company.  In April 1967,  Jim returned to the United States and was stationed at Fort Sill before being honorably discharged in October that year. He is retired and lives in Oaks.

Rod, who has lived in rural Claremore 19 years, was sent to Vietnam in February of 1967, where he reported to Phu Hiep. He served as a clerk, mechanic and helicopter door gunner. He was discharged and returned to the U.S. in October 1967.

Cherokee Nation honors Cherokee service men and women during Tribal Council meetings to thank them for their sacrifices and to demonstrate the high regard in which all veterans are held by the tribe.

Blackwood is a Purple Heart veteran who served in Korea from 1951-1952 with the 24th and Oklahoma 45th Infantry Divisions. He is retired from Baldor Electric and was a missionary to North Carolina. He currently is minister at Corner Stone Baptist Church in Westville.

Floats, bands, antique and classic  cars, politiacal, equistrian and specialty entries are expected for the parade.

(See www.willrogers.com for full scheduled of events or call 918-341-0719.)