SYCAMORE – If they had never twirled a baton with the Marlyn Majorettes, the McCormick sisters wouldn’t have some of their fondest memories.

“I would say going to the Orange Bowl was the biggest and best thing we ever did,” said Mary McCormick Upshir, who attended a reunion of the Marlyn Majorettes and Majors Drum Corps on Saturday in Sycamore with her twin sister, Sarah McCormick.

Marlyn Burkart led a parade corps in the 1950s and later chose 12 baton twirlers to start entering competitions. The McCormicks were two of the 12 original baton twirlers who joined the competition corps when it formed around 1955.