Bugle player honors veterans each morning with ‘Taps’ at MoRA cemetery
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) – When the rest of the world is just waking up, Ron Stewart’s morning begins with a routine drive to Sharon Memorial Park Cemetery.
While the birds sing their own songs, he practices one too.
“That first note is a mood changer,” said Ron.
Every day, he begins with a warmup before venturing on to that first note.
His only audience is the birds and those buried in the veteran portion of the cemetery.
“I have to practice, I have to keep getting better,” said Ron.
Ron has been practicing “Taps” for the veterans buried at the cemetery for the last two and a half years.
“I was running, running through, I was going down to SouthPark or something,” remembered Ron. “How did I see this grave marker? A purple heart and a bronze star.”
It all started after a random stop at the grave of Cpl. Donnie Furr. He was killed in Vietnam around the same time Ron tried to enlist in the U.S. Army.
“So at 19 his life ended, mine went on. It just, it got me,” said Ron.
Ron never went to Vietnam. His doctor, who was against the war, wrote a letter that put him in the ‘unworthy to serve’ category. He never knew why but went on with his life.
Forty-some years later, this is his service. With Donnie in his heart, he taught himself the bugle.
“I thought, I can do that,” said Ron.
He’s played more than a thousand different funerals. He remembers his most recent to his first.
“To this day, almost 3 years later, I still get notes from that family thanking me for being there. cries. just telling me how much it meant,” said Ron.
It takes practice.
He doesn’t call himself a musician, this is the only song he knows.
He’s a stranger to many resting here but honors each one… starting with that first note.
Ron said it’s not about him but about honoring the service of our veterans and the sacrifices their families made.
Ron hopes that people will see the story and decide that they could learn ‘Taps’ too. So few people know how to play the bugle and for most military services, it’s a recording of taps instead of the live music.
Ron is part of ‘Bugles Across America,’ an organization that connects bugle players with military families.
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