Surrounded by his family and a warm blanket, 100-year-old World War II veteran, father of six and lifelong Catholic George Desmarais was ready to celebrate.
Two days after his centennial birthday Feb. 6, police cars and festively decorated vehicles lined up outside his assisted living center to greet him. Drivers waved and called out well wishes as Desmarais’ great-grandchildren scrambled to pass out bags of candy through the passenger windows. The patriotic parade, organized by Honor Flight Network, ended just in time for a slice of cake or two back inside.
Desmarais, a parishioner of St. Philip the Apostle Church in Falls Church, was born Feb. 6, 1925. He grew up in Manchester, N.H., with his sister and a cousin whose mother had died in childbirth. During World War II, he served in the U.S. Army Air Forces, a successor to the U.S. Army Air Corps and a precursor to the U.S. Air Force. He was a mechanic for gliders, a type of aircraft without an engine. He was sent to England to prepare the gliders for D-Day, where they were used to transport soldiers, arms and supplies behind German lines. While overseas, he toured the Auschwitz concentration camp just a few months after it had been liberated.
Back in the states, he met his future wife, Genevieve, called “Gene,” at a Knights of Columbus dance in Washington. “She taught me how to dance,” said Desmarais with a smile. Gene served her country in the Navy in the WAVES — Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service. In 1948, the couple married in Erie, Pa., where Gene had grown up.
They settled in Camp Springs, Md., where they raised their six children: Beatrice, David, Carl, Philip, Mary and Carol. Desmarais ran a service station, a business he was introduced to while serving in the Army Reserves after the war. The family were founding parishioners of St. Philip the Apostle Church in Camp Springs. The children attended the parish school, and Desmarais helped support the school athletic teams.
After Desmarais retired, the couple moved to Salisbury, Md., and attended St. Francis de Sales Church. He stayed involved in parish life, volunteering at the St. Joseph Food Pantry and serving as a Eucharistic minister for the homebound. As part of the Knights of Columbus, he would construct and place white wooden crosses on the grounds of churches through the Eastern Shore as a memorial to the lives lost to abortion. Both he and his wife were devotees of the Divine Mercy Chaplet.
In 2019, the couple moved to an assisted living facility in Annandale. They were married for 73 years until Gene’s death at the age of 100 in 2021. His children, many of whom live in the area, and his niece take turns driving him to Sunday Mass at St. Philip. When his children think of their dad, they think of a hard-working man who gave them a great example of what a loving husband and father should be. His son David also thinks about a phrase his father often invoked, typically when they were trying to get out the door on Sunday mornings. “Roses are red, violets are blue, I won’t be late because of you.”
Maraist is a freelancer from Reston.
