Kevin Jenkins

kevin@thespectrum.com

LaVerkin resident Walter “Jim” Hosey went out with a bang.

Several of them, actually.

The Vietnam War Army veteran, who died Jan. 2, received a sendoff from family members and friends Saturday at the Southern Utah Shooting Sports Park in Hurricane where he had spent so much of his life.

In addition to an American Legion rifle salute, Taps and honorary presentation of the American flag to Hosey’s son Clint and daughters Emerald and Heidi, the deceased veteran received a special kind of tribute in keeping with his personality – Clint loaded 50, 12-gauge shotgun shells with his father's ashes and fired them off with the help of relatives and friends.

“I think he got a kick out of that,” Clint said, acknowledging that he was holding up well, but eventually realization of the family’s loss “gets real.”

“It’s the first time for me that a veteran’s or an individual’s ashes were made into ammunition and then fired through a shotgun,” Spilsbury funeral director Mark Heiner said after the ceremony. “But it’s a fitting tribute to the way he lived.”

Heiner said Hosey was cremated Wednesday and the ashes were divided into two groups.

The one group was for the tribute Saturday, the other urn will be saved for a private family service in Springdale at a later date.

He has read about funeral ashes being loaded into shells for memorial shooting, but it’s the first instance he knows of in Utah, he said.

More than 100 people gathered for Saturday’s event, and many took a moment to offer condolences and a few shared memories with Hosey’s children.

Clint said his father didn’t talk much about his service in Vietnam during the family’s early years in Virgin, and Hosey didn’t even bring the medals he’d received home with him when he returned from overseas.

Instead, he concentrated on enjoying each day, and part of that included shooting guns.

“As soon as I could hold a pellet gun up, I was learning to shoot,” said Clint, who now lives in Cedar City. “Dad was always looking for a good time.”

Long before the county shooting park existed, Hosey was out in the area playing with hand-thrown clay targets, sometimes shooting one-handed, his friend Kenny Canfield said.

“He was one of them kind of guys that, if you was having a bad day shootin’ and he was shooting with you, he would just cheer you right up,” Canfield said. “And if he was shootin’ good and you were shooting bad, he would start shooting bad. … He was a character.”

Brent Jensen of St. George and Doug Sherman of Cedar City joked about how they were getting emotional before the event even started.

“When you start seeing the flag and the honor guard and everything, it brings out the patriot side of you. Especially to honor our veterans,” Jensen said, his voice breaking. “I sure hold him in high regard. He’s really a great guy – he’s always happy, always smiling, always had a greeting for you.”

Golden Corral catered the event with Hosey’s favorite foods – hamburgers, macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes and gravy and brownies with walnuts – at the family’s request, according to the restaurant’s local franchise owner, Mike Richey.

Richey estimated about 200 hamburgers had been served by the time the event was winding down, and some stragglers were still coming back for more.

“This is kind of a neat event, something I’ve never seen before,” he said.

Follow Kevin Jenkins, @SpectrumJenkins. Call him at 435-674-6253.

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