Town lays its fallen hero to rest

With songs and often laughter, Plant City honors Sgt. Cory Clark.

By JAN WESNER, Times Staff Writer
Published September 9, 2007

Three-year-old twins Cory Jr. (left) and Quinton hold flags that flew over the Florida State Capitol, presented to them at the funeral for their father, U.S. Army Sgt. Cory Clark, who was killed when an IED went off while crossing a bridge in Afghanistan. Each of Clark's four children and his wife received a flag.
	[Melissa Lyttle | Times]

ADVERTISEMENT [Kathleen Flynn | Times] Wrenita Codrington places her hand on the casket of her son, Army Sgt. Cory Clark, at Garden of Peace cemetery in Plant City. Sgt. Cory Clark ,25, of Plant City, was killed by a suicide bomber in Afghanistan on August 28th.

PLANT CITY - The young war widow and the mother who outlived her middle child put their hands on the cold gray edge of the Army sergeant's casket.

They looked one last time at Cory Clark's face, his head positioned in a way that obscured the wound that ended his life.

The two placed a white cloth over his upper body, lowered the lid and began their goodbyes Saturday, lifted by the prayers of 500 mourners inside the Plant City Church of God.

"A hero is someone who is noble," the minister, Wintley Ingram, told them all. "A hero is someone who is brave. Sgt. Clark is our hero.

"Not only is he our hero, his family are our heroes."

For the next two hours, friends, family members, politicians and community leaders praised God, country and Sgt. Clark.

The 25-year-old Durant High graduate and other soldiers from his unit -- the 585th Pipeline Company, 864th Engineer Battalion based at Fort Lewis, Wash. -- were working on a bridge in Afghanistan, near the Pakistan border, when a man carrying a bomb on his back got close to them. Three soldiers were killed in the blast.

"Cory loved his family. He loved his country," his longtime guidance counselor, Gloria Chamberlin, told the gathering. She had known him as a sixth-grader at Marshall Middle School, as a teenager at Durant.

"He was proud to be serving in the Army and proud to be providing for his family. He was proud of who he was and where he planned to go with his life."

At Durant, he aspired to be a chef. "Cory loved his culinary arts classes," Chamberlin said. But after high school, he joined the Army, enlisting in April 2001.

Two years later, he married Monica, his high school sweetheart, and made a family with her and her son Malik. The couple had twin boys, Quinton and Cory Jr., born during his one-year tour in Iraq, and their baby girl, Kor'yhana, born shortly after Sgt. Clark deployed last year.

Saturday, at the church, the boys pointed to video screens that showed pictures of them with their father. They laughed and yelled, "That's Daddy."

Laughter punctuated much of the service, part old-fashioned sermon, part patriotic pep rally.

Plant City Commissioner Yvette Mathis read a proclamation from the mayor. Rep. Gus Bilirakis presented Monica and the children with American flags.

The Greater New Hope Praise Team sang several hymns, and soloist Sylvia Washington belted out the familiar refrain from His Eye Is on the Sparrow.

"I sing because I'm happy, I sing because I'm free."

Even the two-star general and other Army officers in attendance were out of their seats, tapping their toes and clapping their hands.

And that was before church elder Calvin "Pee Wee" Callins took the stage. He and the Praise Team delivered a roaring rendition of God Bless America. The song went on for several minutes, as a video showed Cory's body being carried off the plane and as pallbearers carried him from the church to a waiting hearse.

Hundreds of cars, led by about 150 members of the Patriot Guard Riders and a dozen Plant City police cruisers, snaked out of the church beneath an American flag held aloft by a city fire truck. Hundreds more lined the streets for the procession across town to Garden of Peace cemetery.

At the cemetery, there was one last prayer. Army Maj. Gen. Steven Hashem presented the flag, and Sgt. Clark was awarded the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star.

Later, after his coffin was lowered into the ground and Monica was at home with her family, she reflected on the outpouring of support.

"It was so beautiful," she said. "I felt so, so honored."

See Jan Wesner's blog, Standing by at blogs.tampabay.com/standingby/. 

[Last modified September 9, 2007, 15:07:26]