Hundreds remember Gwatney at funeral
Posted on Tuesday, August 19, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/234712/
Bill Gwatney’s murder was a “demented act of violence” and mourners shouldn’t try to make sense of it, a minister said at his funeral Monday.
“Bill’s death was not God’s will,” said the Rev. Victor Nixon of Pulaski Heights United Methodist Church in Little Rock. “Nor was his assailant an instrument of God. He was not sacrificed in order to punish us or to teach us some kind of lesson. God loves Bill. God wants each and every one of us to have as full a life as we can possibly have.”
More than 500 people packed into the church sanctuary to remember Gwatney, the state Democratic Party chairman, a former state senator and the chief executive officer of three car dealerships in the Little Rock area. Hundreds more watched from other rooms in the church.
Guests included former President Clinton, U. S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Gov. Mike Beebe, U. S. Sens. Mark Pryor and Blanche Lincoln and dozens of other lawmakers and former legislators, including some Republicans.
Bill Clinton said he was grateful for Nixon’s sermon as he and others struggle to find meaning in the shooting death of Gwatney, 48, at party headquarters in Little Rock last Wednesday.
Clinton noted Gwatney’s relative youth.
“He should have been at my funeral — not the other way around,” Clinton said.
Little Rock police say the killer was Timothy Dale Johnson, 50, of Searcy. They said Monday that their investigation into Johnson’s life and possible motives continues.
Detectives were still working with Gwatney dealership officials to determine whether Johnson had any business relationship with them and had yet to finish examining a computer seized from Johnson’s house.
Investigators were also working to subpoena Johnson’s medical records to learn more about his use of the antidepressant drug Effexor, a vial of which, prescribed to Johnson, was also found inside his house.
In his sermon, Nixon told how he first met Gwatney and his soon-to-be-wife, Rebecca, last year after being introduced to them by a church member, state Sen. Jim Argue, D-Little Rock. The two were married at Pulaski Heights United Methodist on Nov. 17, 2007.
Nixon cautioned against becoming bitter or succumbing to a feelings of anger, hatred or violence.
“This is not the way of Jesus,” he said. “Become beacons of hope. Glorify God. That is what Bill would want us to do.”
In a lighter moment at the funeral, Nixon mistakenly introduced the next speaker, Beebe, as “Gov. Mike Huckabee,” a Republican who was the previous Arkansas governor.
The audience gasped, then laughed heartily.
“That’s OK, monsignor,” Beebe replied, smiling, purposefully addressing Nixon by the wrong title.
Beebe recalled his longtime friend as a loving husband, father and brother who was smart and had a big heart.
A few minutes later, Clinton, following up on Nixon’s miscue, referred to Gwatney’s sometimes sly sense of humor.
“If you had introduced me as President Bush, I’d be convinced that Bill Gwatney wrote the script,” Clinton said.
Clinton said he made a list of things that made him grateful to Gwatney.
“He was a better golfer than I am,” Clinton said. “I am not grateful for that. But what I am grateful for is that he genuinely seemed to like it if I hit a decent shot, which is a sign of grace.”
Clinton said he was grateful that Gwatney helped Beebe get elected governor and worked hard for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. He was also glad that Gwatney had the Democratic Party buy the building on Capitol Avenue that it uses as its headquarters, instead of paying rent. Clinton, a former Arkansas governor, recalled he used the building as his 1982 gubernatorial campaign office.
An emotional Russell Gwatney of Memphis, Gwatney’s brother, was the funeral’s final speaker.
“This whole thing is so surreal,” he said. “It’s unfathomable, unthinkable.”
He joked that his brother was a “Charlie Brown type” who often said, “Nobody loves me.”
Russell Gwatney said he was glad he and other family members got to spend time with his brother a couple of weeks ago in Memphis and shared their love for each other.
Flags Monday at the state Capitol were at half-staff to honor Gwatney.
For less than an hour, a handful of people from Topeka, Kan.-based Westboro Baptist Church held signs saying “God sent the shooter” and “Mourn for your sins” at an intersection two blocks from the church.
Several dozen members of Arkansas Patriot Guard Riders held more than 50 flags on the four corners of the intersection “to block [the protesters ] from the view of the family,” said Gerald Gaines of Beebe, state captain of the group.
Beebe spokesman Matt De-Cample said the governor asked for the group’s help because it has done a good job of providing “a buffer” when the Kansas group protests near soldiers’ funerals. The Kansas group says God is punishing America for its sins. Information for this article was contributed by Michael R. Wickline and Jacob Quinn Sanders of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.