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COMMUNITY MOURNS, CELEBRATES FOR CORA Published Thursday, September 15, 1994 (Madison Newspaper Archives) By Robert Imrie Associated Press For a few minutes, the somber funeral mood of a packed church in mourning over the murder of 12-year-old Cora Jones disappeared as voices joined to sing one of her favorite songs. Hundreds of people clapping their hands while singing the Bible camp song "I Just Want to Be a Sheep" to the upbeat tempo of three guitars and drums celebrated the life of a little girl, not her death. "Sing it the way Cora would have liked it," Rev. James Bump, pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church, told more than 400 mourners filling his church Wednesday as he strapped on his guitar. The song made it harder to dwell on the awful facts of the tragedy - a girl snatched off her bicycle as she rode alone near her grandmother's rural Waupaca home on Labor Day. Her body was found dumped in a ditch, her hands tied behind her back, six days later about 75 miles away. "Cora was a typical seventh-grade girl who loved listening to music, talking on the phone and playing her French horn," Bump told the mourners, many of whom wore pink ribbons, Cora's favorite color. Her parents, Rick and Vicki, clutching each other, their 9-year-old son at their side, wore pink shirts. Cora's closed white metal casket was adorned with a bouquet of pink and white flowers. Nearby were easels of pictures tracing Cora's life - a girl making funny faces, a baby's face covered with chocolate, a sister holding her baby brother, Cora with friends seated around Santa Claus. Cora was a Christian, and hopelessness should not become the norm because of the tragedy, Bump said in his sermon. "She knew she was a sheep and Christ was her shepherd," he said. "Hope was fulfilled in the frantic search effort of the family and community. The Jones family grew by an entire state. The family's faith through it all has been strengthened." But Bump also spoke of the anger felt by many since Cora's abduction and called it a miracle that her body was found. "There are many emotions ricocheting around this room, around this state," Bump said. "There is anger. There is outrage. There is a demand for justice. There is a demand for revenge. There is fear... There is strong deep pain that will truly take a long time to heal." The pastor said Cora's father, after learning of the body's discovery, told him that finding Cora was a great blessing, and "now I can go to sleep without having to feel guilty." Jones indicated that during the search for his only daughter, he could hardly sleep and sometimes kept searching alone in fields and roadsides into the wee hours of the morning, Bump said. Outside Trinity Lutheran Church, the Waupaca County Sheriff's Department left a small potted tree with a pink bow tied on it, given to the family in memory of Cora. More than 30 members of the department signed an attached card. |
