farragutpress

Lou’s Parade float retired

But loving bond lives thru passings

July 24, 2024 by Brandon L. Jones

While this is story about a special float, it is more about the man who built it — and the woman he loved.  

Farragut’s Independence Day Parade-goers saw one of its floats for the last time Thursday, July 4. 

Built back in 2016 by the late Lou LaMarche, an active Town volunteer and U.S. Army veteran who often played Town namesake Admiral David Glasgow Farragut in various events, the float replicating the USS Hartford in honor of Admiral Farragut first appeared that year in the annual Parade.

“He loved what he did,” said his wife, Dorothy “Dot” LaMarche, a former Farragut vice mayor/alderman, “and he just wanted to do something special for when we had the parade.” 

There was no fanfare for Lou, the admiral in disguise all those years, in the 2024 Parade. He couldn’t see the cameras trained on the float he built. He couldn’t hear the applause as it passed along the crowd-lined streets.  

Lou passed away five months ago, Feb. 24, after a bout with leukemia. He couldn’t have known his float’s last voyage would be in 2024.

“Everybody loved him,” Dot reminisced of the man who tried to take her hand after only a short time knowing her. “He was kind, and he was pretty well known in the little Town of Farragut.” 

After meeting in college, Dot fondly recalled, “He wanted to get married right away. I said, ‘Well, I don’t really know you that well.’” He suggested a visit over Thanksgiving to meet his parents. 

“And so, I go to my dad and I said, ‘You know, we’re getting serious,’” she further reflected. “And he said, ‘Oh, no young daughter of mine travels alone with a man. No, you can’t go.’”  

Thanksgiving passed, but for Christmas she was presented with his offer again.

Her father, this time, acquiesced — but only if they traveled during the day, she chuckled thinking back on the conversation. “What difference does that make?” she thought then, still laughing all these years later about the demand.  

She did go after all. Her hand was wanted ever more. “‘I want to know you summer, spring, winter and fall,’” she recalled telling her young suitor prior. “And when we’ve known each other a year, we can be married.” 

The calendar pages were torn off as seasons came and went, and they became the LaMarches Oct. 8, 1960, spending 63 seasons together, bearing three daughters along the way, six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. 

“He was very kind,” Dot remembered of her late husband. “He loved life. And he always taught our children growing up, ‘Practice your faith and be educated, because I’m not always going to be able to care for you.’ And he always instilled in them just to be good people, kind people; and so far the three girls have done OK.”

Lou and Dot hopscotched about the southeast throughout their schooling and careers, Dot enjoying a workspace in the medical field and various positions in the Town of Farragut’s public offices and committees before and after becoming instrumental in getting the newly incorporated Town established, including becoming vice mayor, years later, and today serving as chairwoman of Farragut Museum Board.  

Lou held a variety of contributing positions as well after shelving his years in varying industries and being a first lieutenant in the army, spending 32 years in the Reserves before retiring and helping Farragut remain what it long ago became.   

Lou’s float, like himself and his family, will go down in Town of Farragut’s history.  

Folks wanting to send ideas to Farragut Museum about a new float can send them to Ron Oestreich, Farragut’s parks and recreation director, at roestreich@townoffarragut.org.