CORNWALL-ON-HUDSON – A Mass of Christian Burial will be held on Thursday morning for former State Senator William Larkin, Jr. of Cornwall-on-Hudson, who died at age 91 on Saturday, August 31, 2019.
The service will be held at 11 a.m., September 5 at St. Thomas of Canterbury Church in Cornwall-on-Hudson.
On Wednesday, visitation will be held at the Newburgh Armory Unity Center in the William and Pat Larkin Education Center in the City of Newburgh.
Larkin retired from the State Senate at the end of 2018 following a 40-year career in government, first as New Windsor town supervisor and later as state assemblyman and senator.
(The American Flag in Walden’s Municipal Square is lowered to half-staff in honor of Senator Larkin)
Prior to his political career, he served in the US Army for 23 years having enlisted at the age of 16 and serving through World War II and the Korean War.
He was also assigned as army project officer to President John F. Kennedy when he visited Berlin in 1963 and provided security and protection for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on his historic march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.
Larkin may have retired from politics last December, but he continued his community service working at the Newburgh Armory Unity Center and veterans’ issues among other causes.
One of his last public appearances was at the New York Air Show at New York Stewart International Airport one week before he passed. Orange County Executive Steven Neuhaus had a conversation with him about both the aerial airplane show and the ground displays.
Among Larkin’s political career crowning achieves was creation of the National Purple Heart Hall of Honor in New Windsor and creation of the forever Purple Heart postage stamp, a collaboration with then-US Senator Hillary Clinton.
Former Governor George Pataki, who served with Larkin in the State Assembly and Senate, said Larkin “was a faithful and accomplished servant of the people.”
Pataki said Larkin “will be deeply missed by all who knew him and came into contact with his infectious personality.”
