| | | Strangers give homeless St. Paul vet military rites
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By Mara H. Gottfried 03/13/2015
twincities.com
A man wearing a Marine T-shirt put his arms around an American flag-draped casket Thursday and hugged it.
He was one of about 80 people at Our Savior's Lutheran Church Thursday, paying their respects to Jerry Jackson.
Many were strangers who didn't know the 58-year-old Marine veteran who had died alone, his body found frozen in Indian Mounds Park last month.
The man giving the casket a final hug was a friend of Jackson's and a fellow Marine.
Jerome Wilson Jackson grew up in St. Paul's Midway neighborhood.
In the Marines from 1975-78, he was a lance corporal.
More recently, Jackson was homeless and apparently died of exposure last month. His body was found in a makeshift shack Feb. 21.
"Dying homeless, in a park, during a bitterly cold winter is a sad and tragic way to die." said the Rev. Brian Scoles, pastor at Our Saviour's
"Most people didn't understand why he went down there to sleep when it was 11 below," said Jackson's brother, Don Jackson, who drove up from Missouri for the funeral and searched the Mississippi River bluffs Wednesday for the place his brother died.
"It makes sense, but it doesn't make sense," Jackson said. "He was proud."
"He wanted to be his own man; he wanted to be in charge of his destiny, which I think was robbed from him sometimes during his life."
Jackson's funeral was organized by people who volunteered their services. Mueller Memorial handled the arrangements for free.
"The way in which he died was so awful, I think people wanted to stand up and say, 'You mattered to me,' " said Scott Mueller, who owns the funeral home.
Mueller says he received a note from a man who said he'd served in the Marine Corps, asking him to accept a few dollars for the funeral. Mueller passed the check along to the church.
Unlike the day he died, Jackson's funeral was held on a day that felt more like spring.
Jackson's pallbearers. from the Arcade-Phalen American Legion Post 577, were men who had never met him.
"We're honored to do it," said John Weiss, the post commander. "No man left behind."
A police officer at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center where Jackson had received care remembered him and had approached the Marine Corps to bury Jackson with full military honors.
In their dress blues, a Marine honor guard fired a three-volley salute, and a bugler played taps. The U.S. flag that draped Jackson's casket was ceremoniously folded and presented to his brother.
Don Jackson met his brother's friends the day before the funeral at the St. Paul Saloon, where Jerry Jackson had hung out for years.
"It was calming. It had a way of making me see that, 'Yes, he died, but it wasn't in vain.' His life was more than just being a hobo. ... These are lifestyles that people choose and that's the way they want to live their life. They can't live their life under authority, they want the freedom. Knowing his life now makes it a lot easier to understand."
Jerome William Jackson (Courtesy photo) |
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