WWII Family Heirloom Brings Blessings to a Rockaway Baby
By Katie McFadden
In 1945, stationed in the Philippines during WWII, U.S. Army Private First Class paratrooper Neil James McNeil jumped down to Corregidor Island on a special mission. He went on to send that very parachute back home to his mother, Sarah. Using the silk parachute, McNeil’s mother, his wife and her sister got to work, turning it into a family heirloom that would be passed around for nearly 80 years. A piece of material used to save a life was turned into an outfit used for a celebration of new life. On Saturday, October 5, Rockaway baby Logan Neil Marino became the 52nd baby in the family to be baptized in the christening outfit made from his great-grandfather’s parachute.
On Saturday, the christening gown that has traveled from Brooklyn to Upstate, Alaska to Colorado and even England over the last 77 years, made its way to Rockaway as little Logan was christened at St. Francis de Sales Church, with proud parents, Neil McNeil’s grandson, Christopher Marino and his wife, Alyssa, watching over, along with plenty of proud extended family members. “I think it’s pretty cool,” Chris’ father-in-law and Rockaway resident Al Santiago said. “When they said they were having the christening on October 5, Chris showed me an article in a Staten Island newspaper about the 50th baby who wore it.”
There was no doubt in the Marinos’ minds that Logan would wear the outfit passed down from generations. After all, it’s a tradition dating back to 1947, when the outfit was complete, Neil McNeil was home, and Camille and Neil had their very first child, Patricia McNeil Tripo, christened in dad’s parachute-turned-gown. She would be the first of six McNeil children to wear it, as well as Sarah’s sister’s children. The McNeil’s fifth child, Kathleen, became baby number 10 to wear the gown. In 1991, her son, Christopher, wore it. Last year, Chris Marino served as godfather to baby number 50 in Staten Island, and on Saturday, he watched his own son be christened in the gown in Rockaway.
All of the McNeil children wore the gown. And then, all of their children. Cousins have also been baptized in it. And it’s made its way around the world, making it as far as Alaska and England. Things got a little complicated when a relative had twins. “My one nephew had a set of twins, so we draped it over each of them as they were christened,” Kathleen “Kathy” Marino said.
What started as a neat memento of Neil surviving WWII, eventually became a tribute to him. “My dad passed in 1966,” Kathy Marino said. “I was a young child at the time. He didn’t see this tradition go beyond his children and some nieces and nephews, but we’ve all kept it going strong in his memory.” To see that tribute be passed down to her first grandson, Logan, meant a lot. “It’s mind boggling. Because my father passed so young, my kids don’t have memories of him, so just to have a little piece of him there means the world to us as we extend our family,” she said.
Kathy says her son, Christopher, and his wife were honored to carry on the tradition to Rockaway as the gown made its way to Queens for the first time on Saturday. “I asked his wife, Alyssa, if Logan could be christened in it and she said, ‘Of course he’ll be christened in it.’ Christopher is thrilled to have the baby wear something that he wore and that has meant so much to many of us,” she said. Christopher and Alyssa even carried the tradition a little further when Logan was born, giving him the middle name Neil, after the grandfather who served in WWII and Kathy’s brother who passed three years ago.
How is the gown holding up after 77 years? “It’s in very good shape,” Kathy Marino said. After all, the family has become extra cautious with it over the years. “When my kids were christened in it 30 years ago, they wore it through the whole celebration, but now the babies just wear it in the church for the ceremony and after church, we switch the outfit to something else.” With that care, it’s held up well. “Only one ribbon has been replaced. The rest is all original. The lining is made of silk, so we have to hold the babies a certain way because it’s slippery, but it’s in very good shape considering the age of it and the number of kids that have worn it. It’s had no rips, or tears, just the one ribbon that had to be replaced because one of the babies was able to pull at it a little bit.”
And when the gown isn’t adorning a branch of the McNeil family tree, it’s in safe keeping. “When my mom passed, my older sister, Patricia, who was the first one to be christened in it, keeps it in a shadowbox on the wall in her upstairs hallway and when it’s needed, she takes it out and we pass it around,” Kathy Marino explained.
“It was thrilling to see my grandson in something I remember dressing my kids in,” she said. After baby Logan was blessed in the McNeil family’s treasure at St. Francis, he made a quick outfit change, so it could be put back in safe keeping for baby number 53, and the family continued celebrating at the Harbor Light.