Pictured: Mayor Mary Marvin and Grand Marshal Dr. George Unis. Photo by N. Bower.

Note: This is the speech that Mayor Marvin gave on Memorial Day in Bronxville.

By Mary Marvin, Mayor of Bronxville

May 26, 2025: Good Morning Bronxville

Welcome on this glorious day so befitting to honor our Veterans.

I thank our clergy, police officers, firefighters, colleagues in government service, residents young and old and of course our veterans, here on the podia and in the audience for coming this morning to bear witness to all those who made the ultimate sacrifice in service to our country.

Before my traditional greetings, I want to share a few words about our parade Grand Marshal, Dr. George Unis. A proud army veteran and a Village resident for over 50 years, it is truly humbling to be able to honor George’s service to our country and community. We could not have made a better choice. George is going to speak to you later in the program.

Dr. George Unis.  Photo by N. Bower

But on a day dedicated to Veterans I want to share that George served our country on active duty with the Army Medical Corps ending his career as a Major. At Fort Dix Army Hospital, Dr. Unis took care of many of the servicemen airvaced home from Vietnam with catastrophic injuries and performed hundreds of surgeries on young men. Dr. Unis has firsthand knowledge and memories of what the casualties of war look like. I know Dr. Unis cared for gentlemen that we honor in memory today.

George continued his sharing with our community as a member of the Eastchester Volunteer Ambulance Corp Advisory Board and also member and ultimate Chair of the Village’s Non-Partisan Committee just to name a few of his community endeavors. George you are a shining example of what it is to live a meaningful life. I know it wasn’t easy for you to let us honor you, but I thank you for the privilege - everyone Dr. George Unis.

This incredibly poignant American holiday has its roots in an unexpected place. The acknowledged origin of the holiday, first named Decoration Day, was the practice of women decorating the graves of their loved ones who died in the Civil War.

With unparalleled kindness the Ladies Memorial Association of Columbus, Mississippi decided to decorate not only the graves of their Confederate loved ones but those of union soldiers as a way to move on after a war that split not only a nation but communities and even families. Fittingly, the name of their Mississippi cemetery was Friendship, and the New York Tribune called the gesture of the Woman’s Group “A healing touch for a nation.”

This activity inspired a young lawyer, later a prominent juris and cofounder of Cornell University, Francis Miles Finch, to write a poem called the Blue and the Gray published in the Atlantic Monthly in 1867.

Finch was deeply moved by these women who chose to lay flowers without distinction as he said, “Only when we cease to argue, can the fallen of both sides truly be laid to rest.” I share his poem:

The Blue and the Gray

Under the sod and the dew,

Waiting the judgment day;

Under the one, the blue,

Under the other, the gray.

From the silence of sorrowful hours

The desolate mourners go,

Lovingly laden with flowers,

Alike for the friend and the foe;

They banish our anger forever,

When they laurel the graves of our dead.

To be sure, the sentiment was not unanimous. There were many in both parts of the U.S. who had no interest in reconciliation.

But it was not long after the publication of this poem that northerners decided that they would not only adopt the southern custom of Memorial Day, but also the southern custom of “burying the hatchet.”

A group of union veterans explained their intentions in a letter to the Philadelphia Evening Telegraph on May 28, 1869. “Wishing to bury forever the hard feelings engendered by the war, Post 19 has decided not to pass by the graves of the confederates sleeping in our lines, but to divide each year between the blue and the gray, the floral offerings of a common country.”

The New York Tribune, recognizing the magnanimous deeds of the Women of Columbus, Mississippi echoed the sentiment by declaring, “Let this incident, touching and beautiful as it is, inpart to our Washington authorities a lesson in conciliation.”

The ladies of Mississippi can serve as an example for all of us here today on Memorial Day 2025 living in a divided nation rife with disagreement in a divided nation. Let this holiday be “A shining example of our nation coming together, despite current profound differences.”

May we walk away today and emulate the ladies of Mississippi in our own discourse and follow the wish of Abraham Lincoln whose firm hope was that there be malice towards none and charity for all. Those who fought and died for our opportunity to be here today deserve nothing less. Thank you and God bless our veterans and may God bless a United States of America.