Monday will mark the first Westport Memorial Day parade that Anne Beers, who served in the Navy as a pharmacist’s mate during World War II, will miss due to another call of duty.

Anne Beers will miss Westport’s Memorial Day parade this year for a good reason. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

She has been invited to Washington, D.C. to place the wreath on the tomb of the “Unknown Sailor” in a Memorial Day ceremony.

“Can you believe this?” she said. “I will also be in the first row with the Joint Chiefs of Staff at a concert this Sunday at the White House.”

Beers was recommended for the ceremony by lifelong friend Ted Mauger, a World War II Air Force veteran, who had been asked to place a wreath on the grave of the an unknown Air Force veteran.

UPDATE and CORRECT The push and pull of immigration politics played out over a marathon House session that began Wednesday with bipartisan consensus on one bill and ended today in partisan rancor on another.

In a vote likely to reverberate in the 2014 races for governor and General Assembly, the House voted 74-55 after sunrise today for a bill allowing people in the country illegally to obtain a Connecticut driver’s license, beginning Jan. 1, 2015.

The same legislators began their workday a little after noon Wednesday with a 132-0 vote for a bill that limits the circumstances under which state and local law enforcement officers can detain illegal immigrants for deportation.

“The bookends of the day tell a very different story,” said House Minority Leader Lawrence F. Cafero Jr., R-Norwalk. [State Rep. Jonathan Steinberg of Westport, a Democrat, voted yes, and state Rep. Gail Lavielle, a Republican of Westport, Wilton, and Norwalk, voted no. (corrects votes).]

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The event will be held Thursday, May 30, 5:30 - 8:30 p.m.

The WDMA iinvited everyone downtown next week for an evening of art, music and free fun for the whole family.

Westport police units lead the 2012 Memorial Day parade. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

The parade starts promptly at 9 a.m. from Riverside Avenue near Saugatuck Elementary School and will end in Parker-Harding Plaza.  Memorial sevices will follow immediately on Veterans Green.

The program will begin with the Invocation by the Rev. Edward Horne of United Methodist Church. Maggie Miller and Molly Liles of Brownie Troop 5048 will lead the assembled in the Pledge of Allegiance, followed by the National Anthem performed by Staples High School soloist Grace McDavid Seidner.

First Selectman Gordon Joseloff will give a welcoming address, followed by “America The Beautiful” by Tyler Jent, a student at Staples High School.

See more events:  Celebrate Westport Calendar