Serving as grand marshal of the Morris County St. Patrick’s Day Parade is a joy for any Irish-American.
But when the line of marchers rolls down Morristown’s South Street on March 12, it will have special meaning for Grand Marshal Willie Quinn and his wife, Robyn.
One year ago, they could not be sure Robyn would live to see another parade.
“Compared to where we were at this time last year, it’s like night and day,” said Willie, who will be honored with a reception at the Madison Hotel at 7 o’clock tonight, March 4.
At last year’s grand marshal fete, Robyn heard someone ask Willie, “Where’s your wife?”
She was sitting right there, wearing a “God-awful wig” and feeling “wiped out” from chemotherapy for stage III breast cancer. A mastectomy and radiation treatments were still ahead.
When word arrived last summer that her husband, an immigrant from County Galway, had been chosen as the 2011 Grand Marshal, it was like a tonic.
Robyn remembers the moment. She had been trying to rest, and grew cranky when Willie insisted she come into the living room. Finally, she relented. Willie was wearing a top hat.
“I had something to look forward to,” said Robyn, whose doctor now gives her an 80 percent chance of living cancer-free.
She still is fatigued. But now it’s from the whirlwind of galas that test the stamina of any grand marshal couple in the run-up to St. Patrick’s Day. She can’t wait to slip into her heels, apply some makeup and party with Willie, their three children and their extended family from the Irish-American community.
“I’m going to this party, and I’m going to celebrate,” promised Robyn, an analyst for Mars Snackfood U.S. in Hackettstown. “When you think back one year, of going from chemo and radiation to being healthy and ready to dance and have a good time, it gives you a wake-up call. You’ve got to enjoy these times. Because who knows?”
‘NO HIGHER HONOR’
Willie Quinn’s journey to the head of the parade began in 1987, when a cousin convinced him to leave Ireland to teach at a Catholic school in Linden where she was the principal. Willie was 23.
“Unemployment was pretty high in Ireland, about the same as now,” he said.
Willie taught math and science to sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders. He was a hit.
“The kids liked my accent, the brogue,” said Willie, who became a U.S. citizen in 2001.
By then the Hopatcong resident had learned computer programming and switched careers. Today he is a business analyst for Merck Inc.
Willie has volunteered with virtually every Irish-American organization in northern New Jersey, from the Irish-American Association of Northwest Jersey and the parade committee to the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick and the Ancient Order of Hibernians.
“There is no one more deserving to receive this honor,” Bill Schoeck, president of the Irish-American Association of Northwest Jersey, said last summer after naming Willie as the 2011 Grand Marshal.
Willie still sounds humbled by the selection.
“There is really no higher honor you can give an Irish immigrant,” he said recently at Morristown’s Dublin Pub.
‘IT WAS THE LAUGH’
Willie met Robyn at Morley & McGovern’s Tavern (now a parking lot) in Roselle Park.
“It was the laugh,” Robyn said when asked what caught her attention on that night.
They were introduced by singer Willie Lynch, who would perform at their wedding in 1994.
Born in Morristown, Tenn., Robyn appreciates similarities between country music and Irish folk tunes.
“All the war songs are happy,” she said, “and all the love songs are sad.”
Willie Quinn suggested Robyn’s heritage had something to do with her recovery.
“She’s southern stock. They’re tough,” he said.
“I have a lot of respect for Robyn. She dealt with [cancer] head on. Not everyone makes it through and comes out the other side.”
They learned about Robyn’s breast cancer by accident. She had hernia surgery in the fall of 2009, and tests discovered something else that needed checking. Biopsy results came back just before Christmas that year and confirmed the cancer diagnosis.
“It was a bit of a shock,” Willie said.
PLENTY OF FAMILY
Family is a theme of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, and plenty of relatives will share in the Quinns’ celebration.
The clan includes sons Thomas and James, who are active with their dad in the Rory O’Moore Pipes and Drums. It’s one of 20 bands that together enable organizers to boast that Morris County’s parade has more marching musicians than the Rose Bowl parade. Willie and Thomas are bagpipers; James plays the snare drum.
Thomas, 14, also designed this year’s commemorative parade pin.
The Quinns’ daughter, Melissa, will be marching, too. Their grandchildren, Griffin and Gavin, will carry the Quinn banner. Robyn’s sister and family are coming from Pennsylvania, and Willie’s sister Loreto–one of 10 siblings–and her daughter, Aoife, are traveling from Woodford, Ireland, for the big day.
Robyn has designed T-shirts for them all. She also is in charge of the parade line of march–or sequence–for all 3,000 participants.
Some 50,000 spectators are anticipated at the parade, now in its 33rd year. It relocated from Wharton to Morristown in 1991.
Irish-Americans feel a special affinity for Morristown because Irish immigrants comprised a large portion of the Continental Army encamped here during the Revolutionary War.
General George Washington allowed them to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day; it is believed to be the first such official celebration of the holiday after the colonies declared independence.
That history will be marked on the morning of the parade with activities for children on the Morristown Green. Revolutionary re-enactors have been enlisted to show kids the finer points of 18th-century soldiering.
As for the grand marshal, his duties are purely ceremonial. Mostly, it’s a lot of waving, handshakes and testimonials to hang on the wall.
Add a dollop of wishful thinking and a smattering of amateur meteorology. The latter is especially important this year, as the parade tries to turn the page on a particularly unlucky day last March. A Nor’easter rampaged through Morristown, forcing postponement moments before the scheduled start.
Festivities resumed weeks later, closer to Easter than St. Patrick’s Day. Willie expressed confidence that things will run more smoothly on his watch.
“I’m looking forward to temperatures of 60 to 65,” he said.
But that’s all gravy.
Robyn never used to think she had the luck of the Irish. Now she has advice for others facing breast cancer:
“Keep positive. Keep looking forward.”
Tickets for the annual Grand Marshal Reception at the Madison Hotel cost $75 and may be bought at the door on March 4. There will be music, dancing, beer and wine, and hors d’oeuvres.
