Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
WCU BAND FULFILLS BIRTHDAY WISH
Golden Rams Marching Band serenades 95-year-old birthday girl
EAST GOSHEN >> When she turned 90, Lillian Whitman made a wish.
That wish was delivered on Sunday for her 95th birthday. About 50 members of the West Chester University Golden Rams Marching Band, in full regalia, played “Happy Birthday” to Whitman, at Hershey’s Mill.
The former West Chester Class of ‘74 graduate and member of the Army Nurse Corp during World War II stayed close by family and smiled broadly as the band also played the WCU fight song and “Hey Baby,” with a tuba serenade.
“I’m flabbergasted,” Whitman said. “I laughed so hard my face hurts. “They were so good.” Many of Whitmans’s five children, 14 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren helped the 95-year-old blow out the candles on a huge cake.
“Who gets a marching band?” she asked. “What are you going to do for my hundredth birthday?” she asked her son, John Whitman.
Student coordinator and president of the Kappa Kappa Psi fraternity, David BonillaGarcia said that when band
members heard that a 95-year-old WWII vet had requested a marching band for a birthday party they were thrilled to participate.
“They were excited to jump at the opportunity,” Bonilla-Garcia said.
Adam Gumble, director of athletic bands at WCU, said the student musicians were “so happy to be a part of this.”
Each of Whitman’s children read proclamations from Gov. Tom Wolf, Attorney General Josh Shapiro, the VFW, which honored the vet for her WWII service, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr. and borough Mayor Dianne Herrin who noted that although the birthday girl is only five feet tall, her family says she is “tiny but mighty.”
Son Rick Whitman said his mother is the culmination of family happiness and tradition.
“She taught us to see into the heart of others,” Rick Whitman said.