Videos: Tom “Big Red” Leyden’s Videos of the 1981 and 1969 Westport Memorial Day Parades

Thomas Leydon, “Big Red”, was an active Westporter who served the Assumption Church parish for nearly six decades in addition to coaching PAL Pop Warner football and remaining an avid model train collector. Leydon died in July of 2020 at the age of 82 due to an extended illness, leaving a void in the community he so fiercely supported. His YouTube channel holds two time capsules of Westport - videos of both the 1981 and 1969 Memorial Day Parades in Westport.

He shared with us the Parade in 1981, as seen and heard from the steps of Assumption Church on Riverside Avenue, and then the 1969 Parade as seen from the corner of Myrtle Avenue and Evergreen Avenue. Both videos freeze time as Westporters of bygone eras march by the screen. His YouTube channel is still active, and documents the two moments in the community’s history for both new and old Westporters to see the community as it was.