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| FILE - This undated file family photo provided by Damon Stewart shows 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton of Chicago who was was shot Jan. 29, 2013 while she talked with friends in a park about a mile from President Barack Obama’s Chicago home. First Lady Michelle Obama will join some of Illinois’ most recognizable politicians and clergy to mourn the 15-year-old honor student whose death has drawn attention to staggering gun violence in the nation’s third-largest city. |
CHICAGO (AP)
-- Hundreds of mourners and dignitaries including first lady Michelle
Obama packed the funeral Saturday for a Chicago honor student whose
killing catapulted her into the nation's debate over gun violence.
Yet
one speaker after another remembered 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton not
so much as a symbol but as a best friend, an excellent student with
dreams of going to college and a sometimes goofy girl with a bright
smile and big personality. They said she was a typical teen who wanted
to borrow her friends' clothes and who never left home without her lip
gloss.
And to her mother, Pendleton was the
daughter she tried to keep busy so she'd be beyond the reach of the
seemingly endless gang violence in the nation's third-largest city.
"You
don't know how hard this really is, and those of you who do know how
hard this really is, I'm sorry. I'm sorry," Cleopatra Pendleton told the
packed South Side church. "No mother, no father should ever have to
experience this."
Hadiya Pendleton was shot
and killed Jan. 29 as she stood with friends at a park about a mile from
President Barack Obama's Chicago home in the Kenwood neighborhood. Just
days before, the band majorette was among the performers during events
for Obama's inauguration. Police say Pendleton was an innocent victim in
a gang-related shooting.
Michelle Obama met privately with the family and some of Pendleton's friends before the service.
Obama,
who grew up on Chicago's South Side, then accompanied the girl's mother
to the open casket at the front of the Greater Harvest Baptist Church.
She put her arm around Cleopatra Pendleton and patted her back as the
woman threw her head back and wailed.
Moments
later, the hundreds in attendance rose to their feet to begin the
service with a round of applause "to the strength of this family." The
nearly four-hour funeral was punctuated with a choir singing hymns so
triumphantly that at times the floor shook.
Some
of Illinois' most recognizable politicians and clergy were in
attendance, including Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush
and the Rev. Jesse Jackson.
But Pendleton's family said they didn't want the day to be about politics.
None of the dignitaries spoke during the service. Instead, close friends, holding back tears, got up to remember her.
One
said she felt Hadiya was "still here with us, whispering the answers in
chemistry." Another said Pendleton always told her to do her best in
school so they could go to college together. The captain of the King
College Prep majorettes presented Cleopatra Pendleton with the girl's
team jacket.
Still, the girl's death resonated with the city and beyond in a way other Chicago slayings have not.
Her
godfather, Damon Stewart, said someone on Facebook had asked what made
Pendleton's death more noteworthy than those of more than 40 people who
had already been slain in Chicago this year - many without so much as a
mention in local newspapers. The response, he said, was obvious to him.
"She's
important because all those other people who died are important,"
Stewart said. "She's important because all of those lives and voices of
those families who were ignored, she now speaks for them. ... I don't
believe in coincidence. God needed an angel. God needed to send somebody
for us to change."
The Rev. Michael Pfleger, a
prominent Chicago priest, said Pendleton was the face of an "epidemic
of violence causing funeral processions around the country."
"Sisters and brothers, I beg you," he said. "We must become like Jesus. We must become the interrupters of funeral processions."
Police
have said the shooting appears to be a case of mistaken identity
involving gang members who believed the park, which is near Lake
Michigan and north of the University of Chicago, was their territory. No
charges have been filed.
Pendleton's death
brought new attention to Chicago's homicide rate. It came in a January
that was the city's deadliest in a decade. In 2012, Chicago recorded 506
homicides.
A glossy, eight-page funeral
program included photos of Pendleton and details about her life,
including her favorite foods - cheeseburgers, fig cookies, Chinese and
ice cream - and the numerous school and church organizations she was
involved in. The program also included a copy of a handwritten note from
President Obama addressed to the girl's family.
"We
know that no words from us can soothe the pain, but rest assured that
we are praying for you, and that we will continue to work as hard as we
can to end this senseless violence," it said.
Other
dignitaries at the service included Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, U.S.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan and White House senior adviser Valerie
Jarrett - all of whom are from Chicago.
