Shannon Stone, the 39-year-old firefighter, husband and father who suffered a fatal head injury when he fell out of the stands retrieving a foul ball, was laid to rest in Brownwood, Texas on Monday.
Hundreds of family members, friends, firefighters and law enforcement officials came to pay their respects to Stone, who had been a firefighter in the 20,000-person town since 1993.
During Monday’s funeral proceedings, Stone’s casket was carried by 10 firefighters who took their fallen peer to a lone fire engine parked in front of the First United Methodist Church. The memorial continued to a cemetery eight miles away, where Stone was laid to rest, according to The Associated Press.
“When you’re married to someone that’s a first responder … you always are leery that you’re going to get that phone call or you’re going to have the chaplain come,” said Trease Burke, whose husband, Scotty, was a Brownwood police officer for 14 years and is now on the Lake Patrol. “You don’t expect it to be a freak accident.”
A lieutenant in the Brownwood Fire Department, Stone was twice voted Firefighter of the Year by his peers. He previously worked as a paramedic, a rescue technician at Texas Motor Speedway and volunteered in disaster relief following Hurricanes Katrina and Ike.
Flags flying in Brownwood have been lowered to half staff since Friday and a temporary monument with wreaths and yellow roses sit outside the town’s fire department headquarters.
Mayor Stephen Haynes said the Central Texas town, located approximately 150 miles west of Arlington, plans on developing a permanent memorial for Stone.
“Certainly we’re going to do what we can to keep his memory and the honor of what he stands for alive for as long as we can,” Haynes said.
