Community Gathers to Bid Farewell to Fallen Hero Will Templeton

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Somewhere between the disbelief and the acceptance of his death , 22-year-old Pinckneyville Army specialist Will Templeton became unforgettable.

You thought about it in knowing the words to the song "You Raise Me Up"--"You raise me up so I can stand on mountains; You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas; I am strong when I am on your shoulders; You raise me up...to more than I can be."

You thought about it in the words of Will Templeton's high school football teammate Kevin Sweeney. "The gridiron was his niche. He loved shutting down the high scoring players. And, when Will had the ball you were in danger."

Kevin remembered their 2 a.m. "nature tours" of Perry County.

He called Will an "American hero." And, he was.

"With Will, what you saw was what you got," Sweeney said. "I'll miss you. I'll never forget you."

There was standing room only as 350 Pinckneyville townspeople and visiting friends attended the 11 a.m. funeral in the beautiful United Presbyterian Church, which fronts Rt. 13/127 on the city's south side, about four miles from the Galum Presbyterian Cemetery.

Staff from Pyatt Funeral Home was all around to assist the family and their guests in any way they could.

The words of Rev. Charles Walden and Will's former football coach Tod Rushing are those that we will remember.

"When I think of Will Templeton I think of four words," said Rushing,

Courage.

Strength.

Passion.

Love.

Rushing, a longtime friend of the Templeton family, said it took him two days to think about what to say. He was overcome by emotion as he drove into the thousand flags that lined the streets and highways around the church.

"Will's shoulders were meant for football. I never coached a more courageous player. He had great physical strength and he had great inner strength. Whatever he did, it was with passion. Will was about love. "There is no greater love than for a man to lay down his life for his friends."

One of Will's greatest joys was when his dad got up and fixed breakfast. Rushing looked at family members seated on the front row and told them, "He loved you deeply."

Were he still alive "he would tell us that most of all make sure you have love in your heart." You never know when the day may come when you can't.

Kevin Sweeney said of Will's girlfriend, Keri McDaniel, "She was the love of his life" and a song the two shared "All I Want" was played as part of the service.

Rev. Walden began the service with an invocation, "Your tears are a tribute to the richness of Will's life." During his prayer he asked the Lord to "heal the broken in heart."

Nora Beth Helvey sang the solo "How Great Thou Art" as both active and retired servicemen lined the surrounding walls of the church.

That was followed by the prayer of confession: "God of All, We are burdened by the things we have done, and the things we have not done. We remember our broken promises, and missed opportunities; the gifts we have taken for granted, the love we have not shown or returned. Forgive us, comfort and heal us. Lift our guilt from us, that we may walk in freedom and grace."

The congregation sang "Amazing Grace" and the service concluded with the Lord's Prayer and the reading of Romans 8:14-23, 26-28 and 31-39.

The pastor read from Psalm 121: "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore."

Members of the motorcycle Patriot Guard lined the walk up to the church.

There were no protests common to some military funerals.

There was only a great reverence and respect for the latest among the more than 6,000 who have given their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The casket was carefully placed in the hearse from Pyatt Funeral Home with the insignia of the United States Army on each side.

It rolled south on Rt. 13/127 along the Avenue of Flags and onto Galum Cemetery where their was a brief interment ceremony including the presentation of the flag to Will's father and the knowing that Will remain unforgettable.