By: Alyssa Ochss | St. Clair Shores Sentinel | Published September 10, 2024
ST. CLAIR SHORES — John Agnello, the man behind so many parades including the St. Clair Shores Memorial Day Parade, passed away on July 21. Family members and colleagues remembered him as a hard worker and a man incredibly dedicated to his city and his country.
Michael Agnello, John Agnello’s son and the owner of Michael Agnello Jewelers, said his parents moved to the Shores when he was a baby. His mother still lives in the house he grew up in.
Michael Agnello said his father was very involved in the Veterans of Foreign Wars and with the city and that he joined various boards in St. Clair Shores.
Originally, the Memorial Day Parade was an idea the VFW came up with, he said.
“The parade has always been theirs really from the beginning and then my dad turned it into something bigger,” Michael Agnello said. “In fact, he turned parades in general into something bigger. He saw that there was also an opportunity to do that as another one of his jobs.”
John Agnello started helping with the parade around the 1950s and stayed for about 25 years before he left. Michael Agnello said this was because his other parades needed more help. He said his father worked in public relations at General Motors Co. and that he “was great at getting things done.”
“He had a passion for the St. Clair Shores Memorial Day Parade and took off with it,” Michael Agnello said.
He remembered his father started work on the next year’s parade before the current parade was already done.
“It was just such a passion for him, and he just kept making it bigger and bigger and bigger and better and better and better,” he said.
John Agnello was a Korean War veteran decorated with a Purple Heart and the Bronze Star Medal with a “V” device for valor. Michael Agnello said his father didn’t speak about his time in the military often when he was a child but that in the last 10 years of his life, when Michael Agnello and his brother asked, he opened up about what he experienced during the war.
Michael Agnello spoke about how his father was awarded the Bronze Star by going back into a blown-up mess hall to save another person. Michael Agnello asked him what he was thinking, considering what he had back home.
“He said, ‘I wasn’t,’” Michael Agnello said. “My dad was a medic. He said, ‘It was what we were trained to do, so I just turned and ran and pulled the guy out. I was just doing what I was supposed to do.’”
Michael Agnello went on to say that veterans who came home from Korea didn’t get applause and that people viewed it as more of a conflict and didn’t understand what it was about. As the years went by and as John Agnello wore his Korean War veteran hat in his later years, a lot of people thanked him.
“He loved that stuff,” Michael Agnello said. “And he would thank anyone else with a hat on. He was very much into the pride of serving your country and the honor of serving your country. He was drafted but he definitely served readily and wholeheartedly.”
John Agnello chose entries in the parade that would enlighten the crowd and make them happy, Michael Agnello said.
“Your floats had to be something beautiful to look at,” Michael Agnello said. “You couldn’t just drive your car that you liked in the parade. He didn’t allow that. Even politicians had to step up their game (and) do something that was entertaining.”
Michael Agnello went on to say that John Agnello had a passion for musical ensembles such as drum and bugle corps. He even went on to help found a group that hosts competitions for drum and bugle corps. This organization was also a way John Agnello found bands for the parades. He’s hosted parades in Michigan, Ohio and even Canada.
Michael Agnello said the parades his father put on were very God-and-country-centric.
“You just couldn’t come in and twirl batons unless you’re twirling them red, white and blue,” Michael Agnello said. “It had to be God and country, always, in the theme. And he was always so much in love with the country, too. Not just St. Clair Shores. My mom still flies an American flag on a pole in front of their house.”
Michael Agnello was proud of his father growing up and he remembered days spent making ham and cheese sandwiches for the parade entrants. He laughed as he remembered how his mom, sister and he had an assembly line making hundreds of lunches.
“And every band got that,” Michael Agnello said. “I can’t even imagine how many sandwiches we made in those days, but it was a lot. They were good times.”
He worked at the parades since he was young, completing various tasks such as shoveling horse manure and wearing big heads.
“He’d always use me to judge floats, judge bands, things like that,” Michael Agnello said. “I got to make a couple dollars. It was always a couple bucks. It was just more exciting to do it.”
Michael Agnello said he learned at a young age to let people know how thankful he is for them the moment he thinks about it, something he says people should take to heart. He didn’t have anything left unsaid when his father passed.
“We’re not guaranteed today, let alone tomorrow, so when somebody is special to you make sure they know,” Michael Agnello said.