Kristofer Walker laid to rest

All of Kristofer Walker's families attended his funeral Friday morning.

About 200 people, Walker's relatives and family friends, filled Deiters Funeral Home for the memorial service that honored the 20-year-old Army specialist and Creve Coeur man who died serving his country in Iraq this month.

The tribute to Walker, however, rippled up the mile and a half stretch of East Washington Street from the funeral home to Fondulac Cemetery, and even high above it.

A lone military C-130 transport plane, based out of Greater Peoria Regional Airport, circled once overhead during the services. At its completion, and after a 10-officer honor guard of local police and firefighters gave salute as Walker's flag-draped casket was placed in its hearse, the 50-vehicle funeral procession headed slowly to the cemetery.

Small groups of people, holding American flags or their hands to their hearts, waited along the way. The larger crowd loomed ahead.

East Peoria Community High School, where Walker played trombone in the marching band before his 2004 graduation, had emptied its 1,220 students to line the sidewalk outside. Across the street, in full dress and attention, stood the band.

One student held high a sign that read, "Thank you for your sacrifice. We love you."

A similar tribute was expected Saturday, though along a different funeral procession route, for Walker's best friend and fellow school band member, George Obourn Jr.

Obourn, also 20 and of Creve Coeur, who graduated, attended Army boot camp on the buddy system and then served in Iraq with Walker, also was killed there only two days later.

Walker died when his Humvee was struck by a shell Oct. 2. Obourn was felled in a firefight while patrolling an abandoned building. His memorial service at Deiters will precede burial at Lakeview Cemetery in Pekin.

Lieutenant Gov. Patrick Quinn attended Walker's service, which was closed to the media, and said he would return for Obourn's on Saturday.

Walker's tribute, he said, "was very tearful, very moving. That family is the heart and soul of Illinois."

Walker's uncle, the Rev. Phil Schneider, pastor of Cornerstone Church in Bethalto, near Alton, presided at the memorial.

"I told them there were four families here," he said after graveside services ended. "Ours, the military which has its own close bonds the American family and the family of God."

It was the family of community along the procession route that the Rev. Quinn McKenzie, pastor of the Walker family's First Assembly of God Church in Pekin, praised in his graveside comments before the start of full military rites accorded to the event.

Why Walker's life was taken at so young an age, "I don't know," he said. "But I've never seen such a sight" as that of the students outside the high school.

"The God of all glory has a plan. As I drove by the school and saw those kids, I said, That's what glory is all about."'

Then, in a somber ritual, Walker was awarded a three-volley salute from six Army riflemen, a lone bugler pierced the blowing wind with "Taps" and the riflemen marched slowly to the casket.

They folded its American flag with stiff precision before it was placed in a triangular wooden box that also held Walker's military ribbons pinned to its felt lining. An officer took it and, on one knee, handed the box gently to Walker's parents, Kevin and Beth Walker, seated beneath a canopy near the casket.

The officer spoke in whispered words a message only the parents could hear. They replied, "Thank you," and the service ended.


From the Daily Journal

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