Stephen Morris laid to rest

LAKE JACKSON — Friends, family and many who never knew 21-year-old Marine Lance Cpl. Stephen Lloyd Morris crowded into First Baptist Church or simply stood in a cold rain Wednesday to honor the man who was called "a soldier for God."

Morris was driving a Humvee in Albu Hayatt, Iraq, on Christmas Eve when a bomb exploded and he was killed.

His surfboard sat behind his casket in the sanctuary.

Morris' cell phone message announced that if he didn't answer he was probably at church or surfing.

His father, Lloyd Morris, a retired prison chaplain, told the crowd that his son's last letter home asked for prayers for everybody involved in Iraq. Stephen Morris told his family that five in his unit had been killed.

"We're going everywhere and doing everything," Stephen Morris wrote in the letter.

But he remained upbeat, writing to his father: "I've led seven people to know Jesus since I've been here."

The church's youth pastor, the Rev. Brad Dawson, said in August Morris slipped into a youth service while visiting his home. Afterward Morris talked to the minister about a couple of kids at the service who didn't seem to be paying attention to the message.

Morris said he, too, once tried to block out the message, but that it got through to him. He encouraged the minister to keep up his mission.

"It's working," Morris said. "It's working, Brad."

Stationed in Hawaii before being sent to Iraq, the young Marine had fallen in love with a girl there and with the island surf, his family said.

"I called Stephen the light of my smile," Lacey Uilani De Guzman, his girlfriend, said during the service.

"When it's my time, I will go and surf with him in heaven," she said.

More than 40 motorcycle riders from a group called the Patriot Guard Riders joined officers from several area police and fire departments to escort the solemn procession on the more than 65-mile journey to Houston National Cemetery.

Along the way people stood beneath umbrellas, or just out in the rain to watch Morris pass by.

Some stood at attention. Many held flags.

The rain ended as the procession neared the cemetery, which holds the graves of 60,000 veterans and spouses.

A Marine honor guard fired three volleys in a gun salute and a single bugler stood atop a ceremonial shelter and blew taps.

Col. Greg Boyle, Morris' regimental commander, handed the flag that covered the casket to Morris' parents, Anna and Lloyd Morris.

The colonel quietly thanked family members for the great sacrifice they had made and for the great service their son had performed.

A day before, Boyle had given the family Morris' Purple Heart medal.

After the ceremony, hundreds of friends filed by, greeting the family.

Among them was Tanner Ford, 21, the twin brother of Army Spc. Philip Cody Ford, who was killed in a similar Humvee bombing near Baghdad on Dec. 10.

Tanner Ford and Morris had graduated together in 2004 from Brazoswood High School. Cody Ford graduated from cross-district rival Brazosport High School. Of more than 3,000 American service members killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, more than 60 were from the Houston area. Seven were from Brazoria County.

From the Chronicle

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