Butler High School Marching Band members Hunter and Kayla Karenbauer performed a song at the Butler Veterans Day Parade on Saturday that was written by their great-grandfather in 1941.

One family who attended the Butler Veterans Day Parade on Saturday felt especially proud of the musical selection played by the Butler High School Marching Band.

“America Forever,” the song played by the band at the parade, was written on the night of Dec. 7, 1941, by the late James V. Colonna after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.

Colonna was a musician as well as a band director at Kittanning High School in neighboring Armstrong County.

Colonna's great-grandchildren, freshman Hunter Karenbauer and senior Kayla Karenbauer, both performed in the Butler High marching band at the Veterans Day Parade.

“I felt a sense of pride that I was able to know it was my family who wrote the song,” said Hunter, who plays snare drum in the band's drum line. He also enjoys the song itself.

“I like playing it,” Hunter said. “I like that it's upbeat.”

Kayla, who is the band's drum major, said performing the song was made all the more special because her little brother is in the band as well.

“Because he's a freshman and I'm a senior, this is the only year we'll be in band together,” Kayla said.

She also called her great-grandfather's song upbeat, and said it's a special experience to perform it.

“It was a sense of pride,” she said.

Kayla, who plays the oboe and piano, said her parents are both musicians and band directors and her grandmother — Colonna's daughter — is the retired Butler High band director.

The latter, Jeannette Schmidt, attended the parade on Saturday. She was impressed that the Butler band took on her father's song.

“It is a very difficult march and they learned it,” Schmidt said.