Querros will lead the Fall City Day parade Saturday as 2017 Grand Marshals

Longtime Fall City residents John and Marion Querro, will be honored as the 2017 Fall City Day Grand Marshalls in the parade Saturday.

Marion Querro is a true native Fall City girl.

”Other than the years I spent in college,” says Marion, “I have lived on the family property that is still home to four generations today.”

Marion attended a program at UCLA in radiology and interned at Santa Monica Hospital in California. She returned home to complete her master’s degree at City University in applied behavioral science.

John was born in Akron, Ohio and attended Catholic schools in the Detroit system. He moved west to California in 1964 while Marion was attending college there.

John and Marion first met when John went to work with Marion’s brother-in-law, who brought John home one day and the courting began.

Marion made sure John had his priorities straight.

“Don’t fall in love with me unless you want to live in Washington,” she told him, “because I’m going back home.”

John and Marion were married in 1965 and built a home on the family property located off 324th Avenue SE. The couple has a daughter Whitney with husband Chad Reid, a son Paul with wife Alison and five grandchildren, all of whom live in Fall City, except Allen, who is serving in the Coast Guard.

Marion became a member of Fall City United Methodist Church when she was put on the infant cradle roll, back in 1944. She has been a faithful member ever since.

Her career in the medical field took her throughout the Pacific Northwest. She worked for many years at Nelems Hospital in Snoqualmie. She was also a 1961 Derby Day Princess and took over running the Queen program from 1980 to its end in 1985.

In 1989 she founded the Bell Choir. Marion travels with the youth bell choirs, the Cabbage Patch Ringers and the Bell Hops, as they perform all over the United States and Europe. In 1989, she took a sabbatical from work and started the first reading center in the Valley through the Eastside Literacy Council, which was in the Two Rivers alternative school building. She retired from Proliance Surgery in 2012.

She enjoys gardening and knitting. Every Monday night in a room above her garage, you can find Marion hosting craft night with a group of local ladies.

In his early years, John worked for automotive dealerships before going to work for Puget Power. John also prepared the first Boeing Little League field now known as Aldarra Farm Fields after Bill Boeing offered to lease it to them for $1 a year. Bill also loaned them the equipment to build and maintain the field.

John’s involvement in the community was exemplified by his becoming a founding member of the JC’s formed in this area in the ’60s. He also was an ASA and Fall City Little League umpire for many years. He retired from Puget Power in 1994 and still enjoys playing on the men’s pool league throughout the Valley.

The ‘60s were a busy time for John and Marion. They both played on the Fall City baseball teams.

Marion said, “We had two women’s teams, the Riverside Tavern and the Colonial Inn. The men were the Fall City Merchants. That was such a fun group! We were so enmeshed that the Fall City Rec Council reins were handed over to us and the group went on to run the Derby Day town celebration in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s,” said Marion. “We did so many fun things back then. One of our goals was to build a swimming pool. (Would still like to see that happen!) We did build the little train in 1968 and I ran the 1972 Fall City Centennial parade.”

In 1987, in memory of Marion’s dad, Carrol, her family started the annual daffodil planting on I-90 near Preston High Point, “because that is the spot Dad drove past every day on his way to work,” says Marion.

The Fall City community thanks John and Marion for being this year’s Grand Marshals. They will lead the grand parade on S.R. 202, starting at 11 a.m. Saturday.

Fall City Day Schedule of Events

• 6:30 a.m. State Route 202 closes, 324th to Preston – Fall City Road

• 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. Fun run registration, Olive Taylor Quigley Park

• 8 a.m. Mount Si Lions Club Car Show Registration, Fall City Elementary School

• 9 a.m. Fun runs starts, 10k, 5k and 1k walk; Awards at 10:30 a.m.

• 9 to 10 a.m. Parade registration and check-in at Totem Pole Park

• 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Mount Si Lions Club Car Show, Fall City Elementary School

• 10 a.m. Kiddie parade check-in at Fall City Library, by Fall City Bell Choir

• 11 a.m. Kiddie parade, followed by the Grand parade, with Grand Marshals John and Marion Querro

• 1:30 p.m. Watermelon eating contest, Olive Taylor Quigley Park

• 2:30 p.m. Ducky Derby race, Snoqualmie River; Winners announced at 4 p.m.

• ALL DAY Arts and crafts, food on Main Street; Dunk Tank; Pony Rides; Live Music by Miles from Chicago