Gloucester native George Larrimore, 79, has been chosen to be grand marshal of this year’s Christmas and Holiday Parade. The parade is scheduled to step off from Main Street Center at 3 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 1.
Larrimore, who has lived most of his life on Indian Road, attended the Gloucester Training School and graduated from Thomas C. Walker School in 1958. After serving in the U.S. Army, he was honorably discharged as a Specialist 4 and began working for the Gloucester Sheriff’s Office in 1971.
“At that time, it was just five of us,” Larrimore said. He happened to be the second African American deputy to be hired by the organization. When he retired from the GSO in 1997 as a lieutenant and chief jailer, there were over 120 deputies. “I saw a lot of changes,” he said.
It was at the jail that he met his wife, Janice, who is retired from the Newport News Sheriff’s Office. “She brought a prisoner over one day and I asked someone, &ls...