VERNON — Gene Pitney’s high school bandmates said the rock ‘n’ roll legend used to come down to Paper Mill Pond in the Rockville section of Vernon to write songs.
On Tuesday, Rob Terry and Dick Spurling, lead guitar and drums, respectively, for Gene & the Genials, attended the dedication of a new park on that same pond named for their Class of ’58 friend and Rockville’s native son.
“I think he would have loved it,” Lynne Pitney said of the 3-acre park honoring her husband of 40 years, who died in 2006.
Gene Pitney Memorial Park on Grove Street was a blighted industrial site.