The historic Hoboken Memorial Day Parade will have a different look this year.
Yes, there will be the beloved veterans of past wars and those who served in peace time. And there will be the glad-handing municipal leaders as well.
But for the first time in the parade’s 124-year history, a woman will be grand marshal on Wednesday, May 22.
“It’s a great honor,” said 2024 grand marshal Sue Stephens, who served 24 years in the U.S. Army National Guard. “I don’t look at it as woman vs. man thing. (But) I don’t usually see women (serving).”
The parade — the oldest in the state — steps off at 6:30 p.m., marching from City Hall to the Hoboken Elks Lodge at 10th and Washington streets.
“I was surprised,” said Stephens, a member of the Hoboken American Legion Post 107, who organizes the annual parade.
The 52-year-old Stephens, a computer analyst with a health clinic by day, joined the Guard in 1991 and retired this year. As a member of the National Guard band, she has participated in plenty of parades.
“There are not that many parades that people go out to see,” she said. “I wish that (this one) was on a weekend, or on Memorial Day. I hope it’s well attended. I hope people come out.”
Born and raised in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Stephens served with the 132nd Wisconsin Army National Guard for five years before she moved east and transferred to New Jersey.
She moved to Hoboken in 2001 and retired for the first time in 2012 with the rank of Sgt. First Class. She rejoined in 2020.
