Another death, but not because of the war. Read on:
Town in mourning
Gurnee pastor and son remembered by friends, family
BY SHERYL DE VORE ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR
Five Warren Township High School boys sat around 13 lit candles, a blue rosary and a small spray of wilting daisies Monday night on the porch of their friend, James Gregory, killed in a tragic shooting in Wisconsin Saturday.
They prayed that James, 17, and his father, the Rev. Randy Gregory, 50, also killed, were in a better place. They also prayed that James' mother, Marjean, 52, who was also shot and in critical condition Wednesday at Froedtert Hospital in Wisconsin, would recover and return home soon.
Marjean will come to an empty home in Gurnee. Her husband, Randy, a regional minister for the Living Church of God, and her son, James, a junior at Warren, were shot and killed Saturday when Randy Gregory was preaching to roughly 60 people in a Sheraton Hotel meeting room in Brookfield, Wis. near Milwaukee.
Randy and Marjean's older son, Jonathan, 23, was not at the service. He is staying in Chicago with an aunt to be close to his mother in the hospital, said Randy Gregory's sister, Rita Norrod of Texas, where Randy was raised.
"She is getting better. They expect her to recover," said Norrod of Marjean Gregory.
Visitation
Visitation for Randy Gregory, James Gregory and another victim, Harold Diekmeier, 74, of Delafield, Wis., will be held today from 4-7 p.m. at St. Francis Community Center, 3476 Howard Ave. in St. Francis, Wis., with a memorial service and funeral at 7 p.m.
Police say church member Terry Ratzmann, 44, shot and killed seven people including James and Randy Gregory and wounded four others including Marjean Gregory in the middle of the Saturday service. Ratzmann then shot and killed himself, bringing the number of dead to eight.
Warren Township High School observed a moment of silence at both campuses at the beginning of the school day Monday in honor of James Gregory. The district also has hung mourning bunting at the entrance of each campus. Grief counselors are talking to faculty and students at both campuses.
"It's certainly very sad. I'd say there is still an element of shock. It's almost surreal. This isn't the type of thing you expect will happen with people you know," said Mary Olson, Warren's director of instruction.
Neighbors of the Gregorys as well as students and teachers at Warren High School said the family was quiet, respectful, helpful and religious. Norrod said her brother "was a wonderful person, a quiet man with a good sense of humor ... Ever since he was a teenager he was interested in the Living Church of God," she said. After working at IBM for at least 25 years, Randy and his family moved to Gurnee where he became a preacher full-time, serving three congregations in Peoria, Chicago and Wisconsin, she said.
J.D. Crockett, a pastor at the Living Church of God headquarters in North Carolina, said Randy Gregory was "the nicest man, quiet, but outgoing and responsive, with a big smile on his face. He always had a kind word. He was very good with kids at summer camp. He was unflappable through all the shinned knees and fights. He'd handle it all with a smile .... He was a wonderful man in the prime of his life."
Randy's sister said he and his wife worked hard to raise their two children "to grow up to be nice human beings."
Smart, humorous
James Gregory was that and more, according to close friends and teachers. He was shy around strangers, but not with them, they said. In their eyes, James was smart and religious, but never proselytizing. He accepted everyone. Like his father, he had a good sense of humor. And like many high school boys, he loved playing computer games.
"We had sleepovers. We watched movies, joked, laughed and played games," said Warren freshman Tom Hajnos. "He was never angry at anybody. When someone would pick on him, he'd just shrug it off.
"He never did any drugs," Hajnos added.
Warren teacher Deborah Brown, who had James as a student in her advanced placement European history class last year, said he was "a very quiet kid who was well liked by his classmates" and was "very diligent in getting his work done.
"The few conversations I had with James, he always made me smile because he had kind of this dry humor to him. He was very witty. He didn't usually say a lot, but when he did, it was usually something very funny," said Brown.
"I never heard anything negative come out of his month. He always seemed very upbeat and happy," she said.
Religious
On Saturdays, James would dress in a suit and go to church in Wisconsin with his father and mother to observe the Sabbath and listen to his father preach. The Church of the Living God is a small congregation of Christians, with headquarters in North Carolina.
"James would never enforce his religion," said Leo Bilenko, a Warren junior who is Jewish. "He accepted people and who they were and their ethnicity."
Bilenko attended the Monday night vigil at the Gregory home. As the day began to fade to twilight, the candles glowed brighter -- seven in front for the victims, a single candle surrounded by a rosary for James and Randy, and five vigil candles behind, with daisies laid in the center, which a neighbor had placed on the Gregory mailbox Sunday.
Tom's brother, Adam, a senior, sat quietly watching the candles.
His mother, Eva Hajnos, stopped in her van to bring dinner -- pizza -- since James' friends planned to remain at the vigil for several hours. Eva Hajnos recalled how shocked Adam was when he learned of his friend's death. Adam and James were on the school's academic team, which recently won a meet at Stevenson High School.
"We all knew James," Eva Hajnos said. "He used to come to our house on a daily basis. Adam was his best friend."
When he heard of his friend's death, "Adam just collapsed," she said. "He sat on the ground and started sobbing."
Eva Hajnos remembered James as a respectful boy with a Pierce Brosnan-style hair cut. Whenever he came over, he would say, "Hi, Mrs. Hajnos" and give her a peace sign he waved across his face. "Not all of my sons' friends say hello to me," she said. "James was such a sweet boy. James was probably the cream of the crop," she said referring to his academic skills.
Easing the pain
All she can do to help ease her sons' pain is hug them, she said, and tell them how senseless it was, and talk. "Talking is good," Hajnos said.
Crockett has asked callers to the church to not only pray for the victims and their family, but also for the man who shot them.
"Our hearts go out to the families that lost loved ones ... We ask you to join with us in praying for these families as well as the family of the gunman and ask God to grant them peace in the face of this terrible tragedy," he said.
Neither Eva Hajnos, nor her sons are ready to forgive.
"My heart can't go out to someone like this," she said.
Her sons and their friends also said how ironic it was -- that a boy as selfless as James could have been killed by someone they deemed as "so selfish."
Said Tom Hajnos, "It was the most selfish thing someone could have done, and James was the exact opposite."
Standing in the street while the students kept vigil, neighbors Toni D'Amore and Donna Yamaji planned to make dinner and help Marjean Gregory when she hopefully returns home from the hospital.
D'Amore said James' mother has always been kind and helpful.
"I had some surgery and she'd check on me all the time to see if I was OK. When they get home we want to help her out," said D'Amore. "We are going to do what ever we can when they get home."
Yamaji continues to be shocked by the tragedy.
"It's horrible. It's unthinkable," she said. "My kids had a hard time at school today -- to think they won't ever see James again at the bus stop."
The Warren community has had to cope with other tragedies during the past year, including the deaths of two former students, Geoffrey Morris and Sean Maher, who died in the Iraqi war. "It's been a tough year for the Warren community," said Brown.