Saturday afternoon, I experienced a memorial like I would likely never experience again.
In February, former AccessWDUN reporter Jerry Gunn passed away after a long and courageous battle with cancer. A funeral and memorial were held, but something was missing.
That something was where Jerry's ashes would rest. And, as avid Civil War reenactor - he was even featured on Conan O'Brian once - a special ceremony at the Battle of Resaca reenactment would place Jerry's ashes on the battlefield.
It was a warm day, with a slight breeze and clear skies as the reeanctors loaded their guns - and a cannon - with Jerry's ashes, and gave him a three volley.
His oldest daughter, Sarah, shot off his gun, in line where he used to stand. The cannon blasted, smoke filling the field. Taps played, followed by Dixie on the harmonica.
Here is the story I have told so many times since that February day, but I never told Jerry how much that exerience impacted me. So I'll tell the story again, in hopes that Jerry will hear it in the afterlife:
I met Jerry in 2010, as an intern for WDUN. Ken Stanford was still the news director, and he was the one who decided to send me to a bond hearing with Jerry. He was a gruff-looking, older man in a tweed sportscoat - with elbow patches! - who smoked a pipe. I got into his car and we headed towards the courthouse.
The bond hearing was for the Toccoa Terrorist trial, as it came to be known, and it lasted way longer than we had planned. Jerry took the oppurtunity to show me how to take notes, and also to apologize for how long the trial was taking.
But I was enthralled. I had no real grasp of what was going on but I was very much interested. It was my first real taste of journalism. It took five hours, then we joined a media mob, got sound, went back to the car, and Jerry whipped up a voicer in 10 seconds flat, called it in, and we heard it live on the air on the drive back to the station.
I remember this experience very well because it made me want to give journalism a real shot. Energized by the adreleine rush I announced to my sorority sisters when I came home that I was going to be a journalist, then described my experience to an enrapt crowd of twenty somethings in full detail.
Thank you, Jerry, for inspiring me to try something new and for giving me that first taste of what a real journalist in action looked like, acted like and wrote like. Before he passed, I can't remember a single assignment that didn't involve someone asking me, "Hey, how's Jerry Gunn?" These are things, personal memories, I could not include in an obitaury story and felt I couldn't always get out so well when grief interferred with my story-telling abilities.
As we play Dixie out, be sure to check back next week for your regularly schedule weird world - we're heading to the Red Oak Lavender Farm for a little something flowery, a little something summery and something very purple.
Until next time,
Stay curious.
