Historian to lead Apple Festival Parade
Published 7:16 pm Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Kentucky Fried Chicken founder Colonel Harland Sanders was the grand marshall of the Apple Festival parade in 1976. He is pictured here wearing a Niles Business and Professional Women’s Club apron with, from left: Jan Gano, Marge Bachman, Joan Clark, Noreen Freeze, Donna Ochenryder and Olove Colcord.
Photo courtesy of Donna Ochenryder
Local historian Donna Ochenryder will act as grand marshal for this year’s Four Flags Area Apple Festival Parade.
The longtime Niles resident said she was surprised and honored to be chosen.
“I didn’t believe it, but I think it will be a lot of fun,” said Ochenryder.
This is the 41st year for the Four Flags Area Apple Festival, which runs Thursday through Sunday in Niles.
The grand parade is scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m. Saturday in downtown Niles on Second Street. The parade route is five miles long through town and ends at Niles High School.
An Apple Festival highlight for Ochenryder was meeting Colonel Harland Sanders, the founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken. Sanders served as grand marshal of the 1976 Apple Festival Parade.
Sanders drank coffee and had a donut with members of the Niles Business and Professional Women’s Club prior to the parade.
The first Kentucky Fried Chicken in Niles opened in the 1950s in a building at the corner of 10th Street and Broadway. It later moved to its current location on South 11th Street.
The Four Flags Area Apple Festival is located on the festival grounds at the corner of Lake and 17th Streets in Niles.
