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<\/p>\nA well-known World War II veteran and longtime big band leader in Scranton was laid to rest on Friday.<\/p>\n
SCRANTON, Pa. \u2014 Throughout his 100 years of life, Gene ‘Dempsey’ Passarella gave generations a reason to gather and to celebrate.<\/p>\n
On Friday, they gathered once more at St. Patrick’s Church in Scranton to celebrate his life, the man behind so many memories.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“They always say no one gets out of this game alive, but he gave it a hell of a shot. You know, the greatest generation, 1925. He goes through the great depression, gets drafted into World War II, gets shot in the leg, and then comes home and continues to give back,” said Mark Van Nort, grandson.<\/p>\n
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Gene served in the U.S. Army, fighting in Europe at 18 years old during World War II. He landed on the beaches of Normandy just days after D-Day.<\/p>\n
Months later, he was wounded in combat, earning a Purple Heart and awarded a Bronze Star for his bravery.<\/p>\n
“I just see ‘Grandpa Gene’. He was always telling jokes. It’s hard to picture the 18-year-old soldier, but it’s well known what he did with the medals that were presented to him. It was pretty remarkable to see what he did before all of us were around,” said Tim Van Nort, grandson.<\/p>\n
But for decades after the war, another kind of service became his calling. He picked up his baton and gave generations a reason to dance.<\/p>\n
He led the Gene Dempsey Orchestra, bringing big band music to celebrations across the Northeast for nearly seven decades.<\/p>\n
“We know how much it meant to him, for sure. He was always writing music at home and always planning the next concert,” said Tim.<\/p>\n
The music became his legacy, synonymous with the sounds of swing here in Scranton. But now the music is a little bit quieter.<\/p>\n
“We’re not musically inclined. We spoke with some people yesterday, and they’re scheduled to play La Festa this year, so hopefully they can keep that going and keep his music alive,” said Mark.<\/p>\n
As his loved ones carried him to his final resting place, Gene leaves behind a song and a rhythm that never faded. “This is my time, and I’m gonna do it as long as I can,” he said. And he did. For 100 years, Gene Dempsey kept the music playing, and now the song goes on in the memories of the people who loved him most.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A well-known World War II veteran and longtime big band leader in Scranton was laid to rest on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266352,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[178,180,179],"class_list":["post-266351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}