Grand Marshal of Glocester parade passes away on day of event

July 5, 2019 3:22 pm

By News Staff

Email: news@abc6.com

Twitter: @ABC6

GLOCESTER, R.I. (WLNE) – The Grand Marshal of Wednesday’s “Ancients and Horribles” parade in Glocester has passed away.

Town officials told ABC6 that 94-year-old Ralph Palmieri became ill during the annual Fourth of July parade Wednesday and was taken to the hospital where he later died.

“Ralph will be very missed in the community,” an organizer of the Ancients and Horribles Parade said Friday. “He was someone that even at his age, was giving back. He would go and speak of his experiences as a soldier to bring perspective to local students learning history. They were able to live it through the eyes of a veteran of two wars.”

Palmieri was a veteran of both World War II and the Korean War.