Obituaries

Parade Grand Marshal, Congressional Gold Medal Recipient Dies

Corporal Thomas Strickland Turner, Sr., 88, died at his home last week.

It's funny how you can meet someone for such a short amount of time and yet be so impacted by their life.

That's how I felt about Corporal Thomas Strickland Turner, Sr., whom I met in May when I interviewed him about his life. He was the Grand Marshal of this year's Radnor Township Memorial Day Parade.


The building contractor died on Thursday in his Devon home at the age of 88.

Funeral services will be held at Mt. Zion AME Church in Devon Saturday, August 24, 2013 followed by burial with military honors in the Historic Merion Memorial Park in Bala Cynwyd. The time of the service is not yet known. Patch will update this article when the information is available. 

Turner served in an all-black Marine Corps unit during World War II. He has received citations from the Philadelphia City Council and Pennsylvania Legislature. In 2004 he was given the Legionnaire of the Year award by American Legion Post 668 Bateman Gallagher in Wayne, of which he was a member.

Last year, he and other members of the Montford Point Marines, the first African-Americans to serves in the Marines, received the Congressional Gold Medal.

"It's been hard to absorb and realize that the good Lord has placed all of this honor on me," Turner told Radnor Patch.

Read more about Turner's life, including the racism he encountered as a child on the Main Line, here.

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