This gentleman was a very well known farmer and Modot employee in our rural area. One of those people that the saying goes “if you met him you knew him”. He passed in a oil distributor truck crash last week.
Visitation was Sunday evening, the funeral director said they had over 1200 people sign the book and in reality probably many more actually were there. For perspective that’s nearly the population of our town. It took me two and a half hours to get through the church.
Funeral was Monday and while I am usually able to get through something like this with no emotion, this was my first service with a firefighters last call(he was a volunteer fire chief) it was incredibly hard listening to it. The precession was led by local deputies and the Missouri Highway Patrol with the hearse and family escorted by Modot trucks and fire engines from his company. I put my dump truck in the precession as he had stopped by often to see it and offer advice during the build. Tractors and equipment with flags lined the highway from our town where the service was to his hometown cemetery. At the cemetery they brought in his personal tractors and parked them around the tent while other locals brought in multiple tractors and parked around the perimeter.
On arrival they transferred the casket from the hearse prior to entering the cemetery to a hay wagon pulled by a side by side for the final ride to the tent. The pallbearers rode the wagon with him.
Visitation was Sunday evening, the funeral director said they had over 1200 people sign the book and in reality probably many more actually were there. For perspective that’s nearly the population of our town. It took me two and a half hours to get through the church.
Funeral was Monday and while I am usually able to get through something like this with no emotion, this was my first service with a firefighters last call(he was a volunteer fire chief) it was incredibly hard listening to it. The precession was led by local deputies and the Missouri Highway Patrol with the hearse and family escorted by Modot trucks and fire engines from his company. I put my dump truck in the precession as he had stopped by often to see it and offer advice during the build. Tractors and equipment with flags lined the highway from our town where the service was to his hometown cemetery. At the cemetery they brought in his personal tractors and parked them around the tent while other locals brought in multiple tractors and parked around the perimeter.
On arrival they transferred the casket from the hearse prior to entering the cemetery to a hay wagon pulled by a side by side for the final ride to the tent. The pallbearers rode the wagon with him.
