Posted on 10/08/2017 4:23:46 PM PDT by COBOL2Java
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (AP) — Jack Beaton felt equally comfortable gripping a pair of barbecue tongs surrounded by friends or swinging his roofer’s hammer on a hot day at work. He died a hero shielding his wife from a gunman in the nation’s deadliest mass shooting in modern history.
More than 800 people packed into a California church Saturday for one of the first memorial services for the 58 people killed when gunman Stephen Paddock opened fire from a Las Vegas casino hotel room nearly a week ago. The service was held in Beaton’s hometown of Bakersfield, a community that was home to several victims.
In family pictures and in tearful tributes, Beaton, 54, was remembered as a fun-loving friend, a hard-working roofer by trade, a generous and kind-hearted neighbor, and above all a devoted husband and father. He took his wife, Laurie, to Las Vegas for the Route 91 Harvest festival to celebrate their 23rd wedding anniversary, and he died in her arms.
“He told me, ‘Get down, get down, get down!'” Laurie Beaton told The Associated Press ahead of the memorial service.
He put his body on top of hers for protection, she said.
“He told me, ‘I love you, Laurie,’ and his arms were around me and his body just went heavy on me,” she said.
(Excerpt) Read more at wtop.com ...
Such men still exist.
I believe Bakersfield lost 4 victims. One was known to me. I don’t know how many injured.
It’s the only job that is important to us.
In this order: Wife and Children, Country.
It’s the reason GOD created men.
#realman
sad
No greater love...
Amen. Heroes protect their women and children regardless of the cost. Rest in peace sir!
He died a hero shielding his wife from a gunman in the nation’s deadliest mass shooting in modern history.Thanks COBOL2Java.
"It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived." - George S. Patton
“I knew every day that he would protect me and take care of me and love me unconditionally, and what he did is no surprise to me,” she said. “He is my hero.”
If I knew for sure that this would be my wife or children’s eulogy I would gladly die tomorrow.
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