The Alvin Sun (Alvin, Tex.), Vol. 114, No. 42, Ed. 1 Monday, May 24, 2004 Page: 16 of 24
This newspaper is part of the collection entitled: Brazoria County Area Newspapers and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Alvin Community College.
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Name:
Address:___
City:
Zip:
Lord, I Apologize
*i
www.hip-o.com
Division
40
5
Marti Attoun is a frequent contributor to
American Profile.
"This is my thank-you
to the men and women
who serve our country,
Rachel LaPorte says.
Tom Day works in his Berwyn, III., office.
Murphy opens his eyes and looks
toward the family.
“The rewards, you can’t imagine. I can
see ir in the family 's eyes. They come up and
thank me,” he says. “It's just so important
that we finish their service right."
“My only frustration is
, that I can't get to all the
funerals," says Murphy,
who has sounded
Taps for about 300
veterans.
When the last
, of the 24 notes of
Taps is echoing
over the casket,
Salute to grandpa
“I played for my grandpa all the time and
always on his birthday. He loved hearing
Taps," says Rachel LaPorte, 15, of Oak For-
est, Ill., (pop. 28,051) one of the youngest
members of Bugles Across America.
She promised her grandfather, John
O'Brien, a World War II Army veteran, that
she would play for his funeral and she did on
May 17,2001, at Abraham Lincoln Nation-
al Cemetery in Elwood, Ill. (pop. 1,620).
LaPorte has sounded Taps for 40 veterans
since, and also plays for memorial services at
the national cemetery.
“I can't even descnbe to you the feeling,"
she says. “It's a great feeling. This is the last
thing that can be done for a comrade. "
The honor student is involved in school
and community theater, marching band and
choir, dance lessons, and is yearbook editor at
Oak Forest High School. If LaPorte has a
funeral during school hours, she wears her
dress uniform to school: a navy blue jacket
and slacks, white shirt, bow tie, and cum-
merbund.
“At first I had friends say, ‘You're going
to the cemetery?' But they know that I love
what I'm doing. This is my thank-you to the
men and women who serve our country."
Once or twice a month, LaPorte visits her
grandfather’s grave, a 45-minute drive from
her home. Sometimes she takes flowers. She
always takes her bugle and plays a loving
salute to her grandfather. -
“I don’t like the recordings. They
sound bad," Ross says. “There’s no
tone, no volume, and it's just a letdown
to the guys being buried.”
For more information about
Bugles Across America, log on to
www.buglesocrossamerica.org.
A piece of history
Every evening during World War II
9 outside London, a four-man color guard
• lowered the flag outside the window of
Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower. Leonard
"Rosie" Ross did the bugling for the retreat
ceremony.
"I’m very proud of that. That's apiece
A of history," says Ross, 97, of Mayer, Ariz.
J (pop. 1,408), the oldest member of
i Bugles Across America.
I As a young boy, Ross taught him-
self to play horn from a 25-cent
book ordered from Sears & Roe
I buck Co., and he has always made
a living with his music. During
the 1930s, his band, Rosie's
O Rhythm Rustlers, entertained up
IPA and down Route 66 and he’s
a performed evening shows at the
y Pine Cone Inn in Prescott (pop.
33,938) for more than 50 years.
F Dunng the daytime, though, he
F often is dressed in his American
• Legion uniform, paying his final
a respects with Taps for a fellow veteran.
•2004Universal Music
G
Devele
Hundre
• Loaded
• Feature
• All Red
• Hendre
• Meet R
• Dozens
• Spiral I
* Makes
A Member Of The Blue Collar Comedy Tour
And A Headliner At Comedy Theaters Across America.
Ron White’s Twisted Tales Must Be Heard To Be Believed
WAS
A meria's most famous bugle
A call. Tops, was arranged in July
1862 by Union Gen. Daniel
Adams Butterfield, who
thought the military's “end of
day” music was too formal, so
he wrote a revised melody
with assistance from bugler
Oliver Willcox Norton.
“Everything was announced
by a bugle in the Civil War," says
Master Sgt. Jari Villaneuva. 48, with
the United States Air Force Band.
At the time, the military used
some 50 different calls during
maneuvers from sunup to sun-
down, but none became as well
known as Taps. Today, the bugle
call is sounded at military funer-
als, wreath-layings, and memorial
services, but its 24 haunting notes
are not heard as often as they
once were.
"Taps is one of those tradi-
tions that is slowly disappearing
and it’s sad,” says Villaneuva of
Catonsville, Md. (pop. 39,820), a
Tops historian who for 17 years
sounded the call at Arlington
National Cemetery.
For more information about
Taps, log onto www.topsbugler.com.
Bugler John Murphy sounds Tops
at a veteran’s funeral in Bushnell, Fla.
(Continued from page 6)
Emotional echo
"It’s hard when it’s a 19-year-old kid,”
says John Murphy, 50, a volunteer bugler
and Army veteran. "It’s total emotion.
When I start playing Taps, I shut my eyes
and concentrate on playing as best I can.
Afterwards, I can react."
Three days a week, Murphy drives 80
miles from his home in Deltona, Fla. (pop.
69,543), to Florida National Cemetery in
Bushnell (pop. 2,050), where he plays for as
many as eight funerals a day. He works
evenings at a video rental store.
ble :uy
BON WHITE
DRUNK II PUBLIC
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Schwind, Jim & Looby, Edward. The Alvin Sun (Alvin, Tex.), Vol. 114, No. 42, Ed. 1 Monday, May 24, 2004, newspaper, May 24, 2004; Alvin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1617914/m1/16/?q=%22Business%2C+Economics+and+Finance+-+Journalism%22: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Alvin Community College.