October 7, 2008 --
FEW New Yorkers know who Major Deegan was, even though the Bronx expressway leading to the New York State Thruway is named after him. But Deegan, who served in the Army Corps of Engineers and built many local Army bases, had a fan in Joe DiMaggio. His friend, Dr. Rock Positano, tells Page Six the Yankee Clip per, who was scrupulous about preserving his dignity, vetoed every statue, monument and street that New York City tried to name after him. Once, Positano relates, as they drove to Yankee Stadium on the Deegan, DiMaggio said the city had offered to rename the road the Joe DiMaggio Expressway. "I told them no because I felt it was disrespectful to Major Deegan's memory and accomplishments. I won't have them knock his name off to replace it with mine. It just wouldn't be right and I wouldn't feel good about it," Joltin' Joe said. Major William Francis Deegan, a pal of Roaring '20s Mayor Jimmy Walker, might be thanking Di Maggio somewhere in heaven. But alas, Joe died too early to prevent the renaming of the West Side Highway to the Joe DiMaggio Highway.
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