Published February 19 in the Lexington Herald Leader

Lt. Cowan brought the community together in life and in death

Lexington Herald Leader 

From the firefighters she worked with to the people she helped, Lt. Cowan brought the community together in life and in death.

"What good could come from Friday? Just look around," said Pastor Richard Gaines, admiring the sudden diversity in the pews of Lt. Cowan's predominantly black church.

"This is the closest this place has looked like heaven since I got here," he said.

Gaines was joined by about 10 pastors from the area at the "Homegoing Celebration" for Lt. Cowan, the third Lexington firefighter to die in the line of duty. She will be buried this morning in her hometown of Sturgis in Union County.

Lt. Cowan, an EMT, was shot while trying to help Fontaine Hutchinson, who had been shot in the head outside her rural south Lexington home. Hutchinson, 60, died. Her husband, Patrick, has been charged with two counts of murder.

Speakers at the funeral talked of hope, and of faith that Lt. Cowan moved on to a better place.

"She was never alone, she was with Jesus," said fire department Chaplain Stewart Dawson.

"His angels came down and loaded that sweet, sweet spirit that we know into their ambulance," he said.

Lexington Mayor Teresa Isaac proclaimed yesterday Red Ribbon Day. In Frankfort, the state Senate held a moment of silence for Lt. Cowan, after a memorial resolution.

The president of the International Association of Black Professional Fire Fighters, Johnny J. Brewington, presented the Cowan family with a medal of valor.

Among those in attendance were Gov. Ernie Fletcher and U.S. Rep.-elect Ben Chandler.

Minutes before the caravan rolled by, firefighter Marc Bramlage of Station 1 brought out Lt. Cowan's boots and helmet. He placed them facing the street, as if she were among the 19 other firefighters lining up along the curb.

Even people who didn't know her took care to pay proper condolences.

Hours before the procession, Nancy Colm showed up at Elm Tree Lane and Third Street, near the main fire station, with a molasses jar of pins and needles. She snipped red ribbons and pinned them to the lapels of strangers.

Raymond Warren, a disabled veteran, motored his wheelchair up to Station 1, but only after he went back home to get a miniature American flag.

Warren, under a black cowboy hat, said God brought out the sun just for Lt. Cowan.

Tears were trickling from the corners of Melissa Gray's eyes. "I'm upset because I ran out of film," she said, holding a disposable camera and forcing a smile.

Gray saw Lt. Cowan's smile every Sunday when she walked into their church.

She was moved by the endless stream of vehicles hailing from places from Waco, Ky., to Charlottesville, Va.

"That's the most beautiful part of it all," Gray said. "She should know that somebody does care."

She paused. "I do."

Some of the hundreds who waited for hours on Third Street to pay respect to Lt. Cowan had met her only once -- when they needed help.

Lt. Cowan took care of Margie Cook, a Bluegrass-Aspendale resident, as Cook went into labor.

Carla Howard remembered Lt. Cowan tending to her after she slipped off a Lexington Transit Authority bus, falling with her 1-month-old son in her arms.

David Pierce said Lt. Cowan took him to the hospital about five years ago, when he was homeless and couldn't breathe because of lung problems. Pierce had two strokes last week and has arthritis in his leg, but that didn't stop him from hobbling to Third Street to pay his respects.

Donning a red plastic Lexington fire department hat, Pierce cocked his arm to salute each of the hundreds of fire-trucks, ambulances and police cruisers that passed by.

"When we lose a firefighter brother or sister, we can relate," said Capt. Dan Shouse, among 12 members of the Frankfort fire department in Lexington yesterday.

"There are no guarantees when you leave the station, and we all know that."

Like many of their comrades, firefighter/paramedic Larry Owsley and Lt. Ken Raglin of Lexington were touched by the public outpouring.

"That was a nice gesture, when people clapped," Raglin said.

In the car on the way to the procession, Strohmann Breeding, 6, asked why someone would shoot a person who was trying to help. His father, Bruce, could answer only that there are many things in life we don't understand.

"I want him to see this," said Bruce Breeding, who pulled his son out of school for a few hours because he wanted him to understand the solidarity shown by sworn officers and to show respect for Lt. Cowan.

"This is something that can bring people together across class lines and racial lines," said Breeding, who is white.

Mary Cloyd stood on the curb just west of Rupp Arena as Lexington's firefighters, in their dress uniforms, marched behind their fallen colleague.

Gently, softly, but with emotion as if she were responding to a sermon in church, Cloyd urged: "Walk on. Walk on."

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