Two chairs were left empty at the Kennebunkport Memorial Day parade in honor of George H.W. and Barbara Bush, two beloved guests who died last year.
The chairs were positioned in the spot where the 41st president and the former first lady paid their respects each year.
Mark Matthews from American Legion Post 159 told the Associated Press that organizers wanted to acknowledge the absence of Bush, a long-time summer resident and a Navy veteran.
He missed last year’s parade after falling ill after attending an American Legion pancake breakfast earlier in the weekend.
2 chairs set out for George H.W. Bush and Barbara Bush in Dock Square who used to frequent the Kennebunkport #MemorialDay parade. This is the first one since both of their deaths @WGME pic.twitter.com/bqwzMwDkfM
— Lexie O’Connor (@LexieWGME) May 27, 2019
He died in November, at the age of 94, seven months after his wife.
Bush spent every summer after childhood at his family estate, Walker’s Point, apart from the time he served as a naval aviator during World War II. It then became the ‘Summer White House’ when he took office. And in later years, he and his wife stayed from May to October before returning to Houston for the winter.
They were well-known around the Maine town of Kennebunkport, and locals said their absence was deeply felt.
“Part of the experience of coming to town would be to go by their house or look for a Bush sighting, whether he was passing by on his boat or going to a local place to eat,” Tom Bradbury, the executive director of the Kennebunkport Conservation Trust, told the New York Times last year. “They were woven into the fabric of the town. To not have them here is a void.”
