Hundreds attend duck boat funeral

Father, three children remembered in service

INDIANAPOLIS — A father and three children who were among nine members of a close-knit Indiana family killed in a tourist boat accident were remembered Friday during a nearly three-hour service attended by hundreds who showed up to support their surviving relatives.

Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb, first lady Janet Holcomb and U.S. Rep. Andre Carson were among the dignitaries who attended the services at Grace Apostolic Church for 40-yearold Glenn Coleman, 9-year-old Reece, 7-year-old Evan and 1-year-old Arya.

Tia Coleman, who was Glenn Coleman’s wife and the children’s mother, was one of only two survivors among 11 Coleman family members who boarded a duck boat that capsized and sank on July 19 on Table Rock Lake in Branson, Missouri, killing 17 people.

Suffragan Bishop Kevin Harrison of Grace Apostolic Church said that despite the tragedy, there has been an outpouring of support and messages of consolation for the family. He said it shows that “we still are a community of love.”

“This community stretched far beyond the boundaries of the city of Indianapolis and even the boundaries of the state of Missouri,” he said, adding that “the love and support that has been shown in so many different ways to this family” has come from across the globe.

Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry said Tia Coleman, who works in the child support division of the prosecutor’s office, is “a gentle, wonderful young woman” who’s part of the department’s extended family. He said she’s now struggling with an immense loss that raises “the age-old question of why bad things happen to good persons” but that he sees “a glimmer of hope.”

“It’s difficult to talk about, that there’s something positive, a glimmer of hope that comes out of this unimaginable tragedy that has befallen Tia and her in-laws. It reminds me that we are ultimately a good people despite the divisive, caustic rhetoric that we hear from some. We’re still in touch with our good nature,” he said.

A funeral will be held Saturday for the five other Coleman family members who died in the boat’s sinking.

Darron Cummings The Associated Press Tia Coleman is comforted by a guest Friday during a funeral for her husband, Glenn, and children Reece, Evan and Arya, in Indianapolis. Nine members of the Coleman family were killed in a duck boat accident at Table Rock Lake near Branson, Mo.