Every year, members of Lake Placid’s American Legion Post 326 participate in a series of flag ceremonies in the morning before hosting a Memorial Day parade, which ends with a final flag ceremony outside the legion outpost on Main Street. Three flags honoring local veterans, first raised on Veterans Day, are lowered; three new flags honoring local veterans are raised.

This year, the parade was nixed because of the coronavirus pandemic. Unlike last year, however, the usual flag ceremonies, including the one at the legion on Main Street, were able to move forward without concern over adherence to state restrictions on mass gatherings.

Legion Commander Stuart Spotts and Vice Commander Bob Marvin lowered flags honoring Ken Hare, Ray Levitt and Guy Wescott and presented the flags to family members. Flags honoring John “Jack” Kendrick, Neil Pratt and Norris Earl “Bucky” Seney were raised. “Taps” was played as Legion members saluted the flag.

Kendrick was a veteran of the U.S. Army. He was born in Vermont in 1931, raised in Lake Placid, and became a well-known playwright, poet, actor, athlete and teacher. He was inducted into the Lake Placid Hall of Fame in 2007. He died on March 9, 2015.

American Legion Commander Stuart Spotts raises a flag at the American Legion Post 326 in Lake Placid on Memorial Day. (Enterprise photo — Elizabeth Izzo)

Pratt, born in 1933, was a Lake Placid native who served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War. At home, he served as a firefighter with the Lake Placid Volunteer Fire Department. He worked in a variety of places over the years, including at the Olympic Sports Complex at Mount Van Hoevenberg and at the nursing home, which was called the Uihlein Mercy Center at the time. He died on Nov. 27, 2019.

Seney, born in Saranac Lake in 1928, was a U.S. Navy veteran who also served during the Korean War. After he got home, he worked as an insurance investigator and volunteered for the Lake Placid Pee Wee Association, according to his obituary. Seney died on Oct. 23, 2019.

The ceremony was brief this year, and Spotts ended the event by telling the audience gathered around him that he hoped to see things look more normal next time.

Before the flag ceremony on Main Street, a flag honoring Richard “Dick” Smart was lowered at Adirondack Community Church, and a flag was raised for Cyril Levitt; a flag honoring Harry Jacobs was lowered and a flag honoring Lawrence Maxwell was raised at Elderwood of Uihlein at Lake Placid; and at the neighboring Lake Placid Health and Medical Fitness Center, flags were lowered for Henry “Hank” Cooney and raised for William “Bill” McCalvin.