Pregnant Marine eulogized, laid to restBy James Hannah - The Associated Press
Posted : Saturday Feb 2, 2008 17:09:35 EST
VANDALIA, Ohio — White foam cups plugged into the openings of a chain-link fence outside St. Christopher Catholic Church expressed the feelings that welled up in this community Saturday.
“We miss you Maria,” the cups spelled out, the message punctuated with a heart.
Inside, family and friends wept, prayed and remembered Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach, the pregnant Ohio Marine found slain in North Carolina. About 900 people attended the 90-minute funeral Mass Saturday in this western Ohio town north of Dayton.
The audience included freckled with uniformed Marines and military veterans. Students from Lauterbach’s former high school — Vandalia-Butler — were there, some wearing the school’s purple and gold letter jackets.
Outside the church, about 200 members of the Patriot Guard Riders — a group of veterans and others who come to military funerals on their motorcycles — lined the drive and stood at attention as the hearse arrived.
Rest of article at:
http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2008/02/ap_marinefuneral_080202/