Funeral 'service of hope' honors three family members killed in crash
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By Autumn Grooms La Crosse Tribune
Friday, October 21, 2005 3:24 PM CDT
Restless feet tapped.
There was no stopping the movement from about 75 band students and directors from across the state when the Chippewa Falls High School Alumni Ensemble began to play ''When the Saints Go Marching In'' at the funeral of the school's band director Doug Greenhalgh, his wife Therese and their granddaughter Morgan.
Hundreds of mourners filled Trinity United Methodist Church Thursday morning to say good-bye. A video feed was broadcast at nearby First Presbyterian Church and Chi-Hi to accommodate overflow. It was also shown on cable access.
The Greenhalghs died Sunday on their way home from a band competition at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater when the chartered bus they were riding in struck the undercarriage of an overturned semi on Interstate 94 near Osseo. They were among five people killed.
The tragedy has touched the lives of Greenhalgh family members as well as their school and courthouse families, Wisconsin, the Midwest and beyond, said the Rev. Richard Estrem-Fuller as he began a ''Service of Hope and Remembrance'' for Doug, Therese and Morgan.
Estrem-Fuller shared family remembrances of Doug, Therese and Morgan, a trio the family said enjoyed their time together.
The family told Estrem-Fuller about Morgan's great smile, Therese's house that always looked its best and the filling meals Doug would prepare.
There has been a ''fitting tribute to a music family,'' Estrem-Fuller said. People came to help Sunday in the school's cafeteria and continued Wednesday night in the gymnasium, he said.
If heaven has a band, Estrem-Fuller said he knows what Doug, Therese and Morgan are doing.
''We put three new people up there who love bands,'' he said.
After the service filled with fond remembrances and words of the future, the alumni ensemble's peppy music led the Greenhalgh's wooden caskets from the red brick church to three silver hearses waiting outside to go to Forest Hill Cemetery in Chippewa Falls.
Doug and Therese's Honda Goldwing led the procession. About 50 motorcycles followed the family vehicles.
In marching band uniforms the students stood at attention as hundreds of community members, friends and co-workers gathered for a farewell salute to the family that made music its life.
McDonell Central High School was among those represented. Seniors, Paul Larson, Amanda Tanzer and B.J. Arriola, wore uniforms from the school's past to pay respect to the band director who taught students across the street.
The first McDonell band rehearsal after the fatal accident was ''somber,'' said Sharon Seymour, band director. ''At first they would like to pretend it didn't happen,'' she said.
Seymour said the week has been a roller coaster, but it's the kids she worries about the most.
''That could have been any of us on that bus,'' she said.
Doug and Therese lived next-door to Tanzer. She said when the close-knit neighborhood found out, it was ''very emotional.''
Spring Valley High School band director Gary Smith brought five students to attend the funeral of the man he student taught with in 1986.
''He was great. I will never forget when he made me do the hockey pep band because it was too cold,'' Smith said.
Autumn Grooms can be reached at (608) 791-8424, or agrooms@lacrossetribune.com.
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