WORLD WAR II NAVY VETERAN LUCY LASSER SALPETER OF WOODMERE AND NEPONSIT TO BE HONORED AS A GRAND MARSHAL IN MEMORIAL DAY PARADE
Little Neck-Douglaston Memorial Day Parade
Grand Marshal Lucy Lasser Salpeter
Lucy Lasser Salpeter, 90, of Woodmere and Neponsit, and World War II veteran will be honored as the first and only female Grand Marshal on Monday afternoon, May 26th at the Little Neck/Douglaston Memorial Day Parade, the largest such parade in the nation. Salpeter is one of five World War II veterans selected to lead the parade.
Lucy Lasser Salpeter graduated from Hofstra College (now University) and New York University where she completed her Occupational Therapy internship. She enlisted in the United States Navy as a WAVE. At the time she joined the WAVES, there were approximately 84,000 women of which 8,000 were officers; Lucy rose to the rank of Lieutenant Junior Grade by the end of her service. She served at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland and St. Albans in Queens, NY. Lasser provided care for thousands of those in wounded from the Navy, Coast Guard, Marines and Merchant Marines.
Lucy Lasser Salpeter as an Ensign in the United States Navy
front center
After service in the WAVES, Lucy was married to Burton Foch Salpeter, MD in 1948. Burton was a family physician raised in Rockaway Park, Queens. He had served in Patton’s Third Army, 87th Division, as a Battalion Surgeon on the front line in Europe. He went through the Battle of the Bulge and many other serious conflicts. He was there when the Nazi concentration camps, such as Buchenwald, were liberated. After he returned from service having been awarded such as honors as the Bronze Star and eligible for a Silver Star, Burton went on to practice medicine in the Rockaway community for 56 years. In 1953, when the couple welcomed the first of two children, Ann Salpeter Schockett, Lucy was officially separated from service.
The 87th edition of the parade will begin at 2pm at the intersection of Jayson Avenue and Northern Boulevard, Great Neck, and move west along Northern Boulevard ending at Northern Boulevard and 245th Street in Douglaston, Queens.
