Birthday salute: South Elgin gives WWII, Korean War veteran a 95th birthday to remember

Veteran David McClure said the parade he got for his 95th birthday was such a fantastic surprise, he was still recovering from the celebration a day later.

The parade on April 26 was organized by the village of South Elgin with police, fire and parks and recreation vehicles, Chad's Towing in St. Charles, motorcycle riders from American Legion Post 57 in Elgin, and members of the Patriot Guard Riders.

"Here's this whole mob, everybody from down the street come up this way," McClure said. "Every kind of Corvette in the country came by ... They were honking their horns like mad. Everybody had a flag, so of course I had to salute everybody. My arm got tired. I never had a parade like that."

The event was organized by South Elgin Police Officer Jim Creighton, who played the bagpipes. True Patriots Care decorated McClure's front yard with U.S. flags and presented him a U.S. flag and a Navy flag.

"He's a veteran of World War II and Korea - we don't have too many of those around," Creighton said. "If we can celebrate what he did for us, we will do it."

McClure and his wife of 68 years, Marjorie, live with their daughter Carolyn Roys and her husband, Steve. The celebration was especially meaningful when her father is largely confined indoors during the COVID-19 pandemic, Carolyn Roys said.

"Dad loves to greet neighbors and chat on his daily walks and that's been hard," she said. "Having so many neighbors come and sing happy birthday while officer Jim played bagpipes brought tears to my eyes ... The city went above and beyond."

A native of Iowa, McClure was a second class petty officer with the U.S. Navy. He served as an instructor and researcher in gunfire control systems during World War II and as a gunfire control man on the USS Essex aircraft carrier during the Korean War.

He earned a teaching degree and then a graduate degree in botany. He worked as a seed analyst across the country - California, Idaho and Iowa - until his retirement in the late 1980s. When his wife, a teacher, also retired, they moved to Minnesota to be close to one of their sons, and eventually to South Elgin four years ago.

McClure is not in the best of health - he had a quadruple bypass 20 years ago, had his gallbladder removed, suffers from high blood pressure and developed diabetes. He has macular degeneration in one eye, so his wife reads the newspaper to him every day. "Everything an old man has, I got," he says with a chuckle.

But he enjoys doing the crossword puzzle and loves watching the TV show "NCIS" (Naval Criminal Investigative Service). "Once in a while they have a show showing some action aboard a carrier. I see the carrier and I recognize all those parts."

He's also grateful for the care he's received at Edward Hines Jr. Veterans Affairs Hospital, he said. "I know the VA has gotten a lot of bad press but darn it, I have gotten really good care from those people."

His birthday parade, McClure said, was something that he will always remember - and he looks forward to seeing everyone again for his 100th birthday. "It was a quite a fantastic day," he said.