Texan who directed Macy's spectacular Thanksgiving parade for years finally gets to spectate

Editor's note, April 18, 2018: This story originally appeared in The Dallas Morning News on Nov. 19, 2001. Jean McFadden died Wednesday at age 75.

On Thanksgiving Day, Lufkin native Jean McFaddin will do something she's never done before. She's going to sit back and watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

What's so strange about that?

For the past 24 years, Ms. McFaddin has been at the helm of the extravaganza, organizing a cast of thousands, dozens of enormous balloons and floats, celebrities, and behind-the-scenes volunteers

"It's bittersweet," Ms. McFaddin says. "Part of me is just thrilled not to have all the work and responsibility, but [I'll miss] the joy and the excitement."

That spirit wasn't dimmed by the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on New York City. The parade will roll, in all its splendor, with enhanced security including more than 2,000 police officers along the

But Ms. McFaddin says that in spite of security concerns, there hasn't been any talk of canceling the parade, and all performers and participants who were scheduled to appear prior to the attacks

"As the president of the United States says, we all have to go on with our lives," she says. "The parade is part of the American tradition and life."

This year, it will take a team of people to carry on that tradition and do Ms. McFaddin's job. Talk about Texas-size shoes to fill.

Ms. McFaddin was hired by Macy's East to produce the parade in 1976. At that time, the parade seriously needed rejuvenation, and Ms. McFaddin, a University of Texas graduate who had made a name for herself as a theater director/producer, was just the person to put the "show" back into the business of the nation's largest and most famous parade.

"The parade had been ignored, there had been no new balloons for years, they were very old and very tired," she says. "My job was to bring a whole new state of the art."

Ms. McFaddin had to start by building a new infrastructure for the parade. Where there were once just a couple of people working in the parade studio, today there are 25 people building floats and

She also wanted to improve performance quality, creating a clown college for the hundreds of volunteer clowns who march in the parade, as well as a dance school to choreograph and teach routines to the thousands of dancers.

"We wanted to work with NBC to make it a better television show - costumes, props, choreography," she says. "We got some professionals in, and we created some classes."

Another McFaddin creation was new events surrounding the parade, such as Balloon Fest, where the press and public can get a sneak preview of new balloons during their test flights. (This year's new balloons are Curious George, Jimmy Neutron, Pikachu, Pokémon and Kraft Cheesasaurus, a giant yellow dinosaur.) She says even the smaller events attract hundreds of thousands of parade

Each parade is two years in the making, and Ms. McFaddin has continued to consult on the parade, so this year's event will still have her touch. It also will include a tribute to the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks.

"The theme of the parade has always been patriotic," she says. "There is a special tribute planned with the Statue of Liberty float, to recognize the importance, in the spirit of the parade, a positive salute."

She says that because this is the 75th annual Macy's parade (the first one was in 1924, but the parade did not roll during war years 1942-44) they already had planned to bring back classic balloons such as Harold the Fireman, which is particularly appropriate this year.

The parade has become a family affair for Ms. McFaddin. She has no children, but her siblings, nieces, and nephews have ridden in the parade. Her niece Jeannie even received her marriage proposal from her future husband, Jonathan, while the pair marched as clowns.

At 59, Ms. McFaddin says she has lots of plans for the future, including speaking engagements at colleges and festival conventions. In fact, she says, she's busier than ever. But her time with Macy's will always be a special memory.

"When I was doing my final days at Macy's, one of the greatest honors was [that] Mayor Giuliani named April 19, 2001, Jean McFaddin Day in the city," she says. "My heart will always be in Texas, but I'm a real New Yorker."

And what will she miss most?

"I always led the parade on the march down Broadway, and seeing the faces of the millions of children ... to see the smiles and the faces ... it has been worth every minute."

Kristen Kauffman is a Dallas free-lance writer.