From our Late to the Ninetieth Birthday Party desk

This ad ran in the A section of yesterday’s Boston Globe:

Marvin Gilmore? Do we know him?

Yes we do.

From the May 21, 2010 edition of the Boston Globe:

Legion of Honor comes 66 years later

D-day veteran says he suffered discrimination

Marvin E. Gilmore Jr. has cofounded a bank and helped revive parts of Roxbury. He owns a Cambridge nightspot and at 86 is considered one of the most stylish men in Greater Boston.

Yesterday, however, Gilmore was honored for what he did as a teenager: drop out of school, enlist in the US Army, and storm Normandy’s beaches on June 6, 1944, even though as an African-American, he said, he faced ruthless racism from fellow soldiers.

At a State House ceremony, Gilmore was awarded the Legion of Honor, France’s highest civilian award, for his role in liberating France and for his refusal to let discrimination hold him back while in the Army and at home afterward.

He is the first African-American in New England to be awarded the Legion of Honor, said the office of the consul general of France in Boston.

In addition, “Gilmore cofounded the Unity Bank in Roxbury, the first black-owned commercial bank in Boston, and played key roles in redevelopment of the Southwest Corridor, the Newmarket industrial district, and the CrossTown industrial park near the Boston Medical Center in Roxbury.”

Marvinpalooza is Monday, September 22. We’re guessing a splendid time is guaranteed for all.