Benson honors its fallen soldier

Townspeople line the street to bid farewell to 82nd Airborne member

The town of Benson turned out in droves Thursday to honor Staff Sgt. William Clint Moore -- a gifted pianist with movie-star good looks and a Jerry Lee Lewis flair. Moore, a 27-year-old paratrooper from the 82nd Airborne Division, died in Iraq on April 23. He was among nine Fort Bragg soldiers killed when attackers exploded two trucks beside their military outpost in the tiny town of Sadah in Iraq's Diyala province.

Hundreds of family and friends overflowed Benson Grove Baptist Church for the funeral service. A procession of cars stretched about three miles long -- past tilled fields and horse pastures -- as people drove along N.C. 50 from the church to downtown.

"This is a small community," said Mayor Jerry McLamb, who says he has been crying a lot the past few days. "When you affect one family around here, you affect a whole bunch of families."

Students stood outside Benson Elementary waving flags as the caravan passed.

"The children were as quiet as I've ever seen 400 kids," said Carol Wilkins, a school secretary. "They understood what it was for."

Some of them had learned recently how to fold a flag, military-style. They visited Fort Bragg in March to give pocket-size flags to soldiers about to deploy, and have begun exchanging letters with them.

But this hit home hard because it was one of their own.

Along Main Street, ROTC cadets from Moore's alma mater, South Johnston High School, stood in silence. Business people and area residents held their hands to their hearts as they watched the solemn parade led by motorcycles and a silver hearse.

Florist Charles Davis said the outpouring in this small Johnston County town southeast of Raleigh had been overwhelming. People planted flags across downtown, and they made a run on ribbon at his store for bows to tie around mailboxes and lightpoles.

"We shipped in ribbon from Greensboro and Richmond," Davis said, " and anywhere that had red-white-and-blue ribbon for wholesale."

Residents also requested flower arrangements, decorated with guitars, keyboards and a 45-RPM record of Betty Wright's "I'll Love You Forever Heart and Soul."

Moore was crazy about music. He could play guitar and sing, but was best at piano. At a friend's wedding, Moore pulled off his shirt and swung it around his head in the style of rock pianist legend Jerry Lee Lewis -- while continuing to play with his free hand.

"He always knew what would make people happy," said friend Jason Grimes, 29.

Grimes and a cousin, Austin Swann, had grown up camping, trolling for catfish and riding four wheelers with Moore. In recent years, they would hang out, grilling steaks. Despite all the places he had traveled in his nearly 10-year military career, though, Moore always talked about returning to Benson, Grimes said.

Grimes, who enlisted in the Navy because of Moore's enthusiasm, couldn't be there as his friend's casket was lowered into the earth. But stationed in Hawaii, he made sure a heart-shaped memorial covered in roses and orchids was near the grave. Only the horns of a passing train punctuated the stillness on the cloudy day Moore finally came home.