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thedrifter
04-26-07, 07:03 AM
Friends remember fallen Marine's smile, spirit

April 26, 2007
By TIM WAGNER STAFF WRITER

We little knew that morning

God was going to call your name,

In life we loved you dearly,

In death we do the same.

Mourners gathered at Dieterle Memorial Home on a dreary Wednesday afternoon to pay their respects to the family of Marine Lance Cpl. Jesse De La Torre -- an East Aurora High School graduate who was killed April 16 in Iraq.

De La Torre's visitation drew hundreds of family members, friends, former teachers and decorated Marines. The 29-year-old was a member of the 2nd Battalion out of Twentynine Palms, Calif.

He was the classmate whom friends could always count on to provide a wide smile. A kid whose saxophone blared magic.

"He was a very passionate young man," said Steve Ode, a friend and bandmate of De La Torre in the late 1990s at East High. "He was very upbeat, always positive and really well-liked in band. He could play the heck out of that saxophone."

The verse on the back of his remembrance holy card continued:

It broke our hearts to lose you,

You did not go alone.

For part of us went with you,

The day God called you home.

His open casket draped with the American Flag and guarded by two Marines, De La Torre was remembered as a caring person through all phases of his life. Friends recall him carrying a Bible in the East High hallways.

Friends and relatives, weeping quietly, said that even as a young boy, unsure where God might one day lead him, De La Torre always wore a smile.

"We had a very good relationship," said Gerald Lubshina, De La Torre's American history teacher at East High. "Not only was he a very good student in class, but he would often stop by to discuss many different things."

"He had goals and desires, and was a leader with lots of friends," said Wendi Goins, De La Torre's home economics teacher at Waldo Middle School.

You left us beautiful memories,

Your love is still our guide.

And though we cannot see you,

You are always by our side.

The funeral for De La Torre will be at 10 a.m. today at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Aurora. Burial will be in Riverside Cemetery in Montgomery.

Ellie