Since its humble beginnings as a bike ride through Randol Mill Park in 1965, Dottie Lynn’s initiative has grown into a 150-float, all-volunteer Fourth of July tradition.
Today, the Arlington Independence Day Parade is a known spectacle not only across the city but throughout the state.
Lynn, who served as a city council member for 18 years, ended her career as mayor pro tempore. She was a dedicated civic leader and was instrumental in shaping the Arlington Fourth of July celebration.
She chaired the event for four years, laying a foundation that would grow into an annual tradition.
“Evidently, she was a mover and a shaker,” said Amanda Kowalski, Arlington 4th of July Association board member.
A key participant in the parade is the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal organization. The group initially joined with a float, but over time its role evolved, Kowalski said. Members began carrying a massive 20-by-40-foot retired military garrison flag.
“They have been in the parade every year,” she said. “They haven’t always carried the flag, but they’ve always been in the parade.”
As Arlington grew, so did the parade. Eventually, after it started to get too large in the late ’90s, organizers capped participation at 150 floats to maintain manageability and safety, said Kevin Donovan, president of the Arlington 4th of July Association.
When the world shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic, it looked like Arlington’s decades-long parade tradition might come to a halt. But even then, the association found a way to continue it.
“A group of board members got together, of course wearing masks and just for camaraderie and nostalgia, we walked the parade route together just so that we would have that continuity in the parade,” said Roxanne Thalman, a director of the parade association.
Thalman said the experience was bittersweet, but by the next year, the parade had more or less returned to normal.
“The next year we came back and our crowd was large and people were happy,” she said. “There was a lot of hugging and happiness and people missing each other from the year before. And since then, the parade has been bigger than ever.”
In recent years, the parade has welcomed a new crowd favorite: Sparky, its official mascot.
Kowalski described Sparky as a six-foot, bright red, yellow and blue firework who gives high fives along the parade route.
Over the years, the parade has featured prominent figures from Arlington and across Texas as grand marshals, including 43rd U.S. President George W. Bush, Allan Saxe, Cpl. Dick Hill and this year’s marshal, Chris Cassidy, CEO of the National Medal of Honor Museum.
From humble beginnings of bicycles going down the street to now, where intricate floats glide along the parade route, the Arlington Independence Day Parade has grown into a city tradition.
“You can come out and see your family members, if they're in a high school band, or they're from your church, or they're your co-workers or your neighbors,” Donovan said. “People can come out and just see the community reflected in the parade.”
News editor James Ward contributed to this story.
@tay._.sansom
