Remains of Lawrence Marine to come home Saturday
As the world pauses to remember the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the city of Lawrence also will stand at attention Saturday to honor one of its own.
The remains of U.S. Marine Sgt. Johanny Rosario, one of 13 U.S. service members killed last month in a suicide bombing outside Kabul’s airport, are scheduled to arrive at noon at Logan International Airport in Boston, where her family will be waiting.
“They are grieving,” said Francisco Urena, the family’s spokesman and former Massachusetts Secretary of
Veterans Services. “Now they are a gold star family, the family of someone who has died either in service or in combat. They are not alone. But they continue to feel that loss.”
At Logan, the Rev. Israel Rodriguez of the family’s church, Saint Mary of the Assumption in Lawrence, will bless her casket, and the hearse will be accompanied by a procession of police north on Interstate 93, to Interstate 495, to Route 114.
From there, it will cross the city she knew so well to Farrah Funeral Home.
On Monday, Rosario’s family will have a private Mass for her. A public wake will be held for her, beginning at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Lawrence.
The wake will conclude at 2 p.m., when clergy and officials will speak. And at 3:15 p.m., the hearse and family will leave for Bellevue Cemetery, where a horse-drawn caisson will bring her to the veterans’ section.
“It was the family’s wishes for her to be buried there, rather than Arlington National Cemetery,” Urena said. “They wanted to be close to her.”
“We expect Marines who served with her to be present,” he said. “These are people who want to honor her life, her service to our country and her sacrifice.”
Rosario likely saved tens of thousands of women and children she was responsible for screening at the gates to the Kabul airport, Urena said.
She was only 5 years old when 9/11 happened.
She graduated from Lawrence High School and went on to attend Bridgewater State University but left to join the Marines, he said.
The last Lawrence native to be killed in combat was Army Staff Sgt. Alex Jimenez, who died on July 8, 2008, while serving during Operation Iraqi Freedom.