The Roanoke Times

Printed Sept. 28, 2000

Death brought talk of laughter.

For if there was one defining thing that Danny Lee Overstreet brought to this world, it was laughter, his family said.

A laugh that pierced the soul, a laugh that his family said will live on past Overstreet's grave.

Beside Overstreet's casket at his funeral Wednesday, pictures of him laughing and living reminded people of the man gunned down in a bar Friday night. Six others who were shot at Backstreet Cafe on Salem Avenue live to remember the night. Overstreet, 43, died on the floor of the bar in minutes, paramedics said.

He hung out at the gay bar because of the camaraderie, his mother, Ann Overstreet, has said. He never drank, but always smiled.

"He was the laughing man," his niece, Misty Overstreet, said in a eulogy. "He hated to see sadness."

Mourners overflowed from the Oakey's Vinton Chapel, about 800 people in all. Once the chapel was full, the remaining 300 people stood outside in the warm sunset.

Inside the chapel, tears flowed as Misty Overstreet said the eulogy for the man she said was like her older brother and great friend.

"He was taken before his time in a way no man or woman should have been," she said. "Danny was there for all of us, and he still is there for all of us."

Men hugged men. Women hugged women. Men hugged women. Many wore white ribbons, which have come to symbolize innocence.

The Rev. Catherine Houchins, pastor of the Metropolitan Community Church of the Blue Ridge, which has a large gay and lesbian membership, presided over the service.

"What's happened in the city of Roanoke is horrible. What's happened to you and your life because you knew Danny is horrible," Houchins said during the service. "But we have to block the hate of the world with love."

The shock of the slaying is being felt all around Roanoke, some said.

"It's the non-gay community, too, that's grieving," said Richard Ward, who stood as part of the Hate Free Roanoke Task Force. "It's not just one orientation; it's all orientations."

Many who never heard Overstreet's name before it became national news attended the funeral.

Donald Hitchcock with the Human Rights Campaign in Washington, D.C., was on hand for the week, helping people understand the crime and keeping people focused on the message of ending them.

Lee Phillips and Tricia Goadagni, Hollins University students from New York, never met Overstreet. They just wanted to make a stance against hate crimes.

Kathy Caldwell was there, too. Although she didn't know Overstreet, she does know what he went through Friday night. She was one of the seven shot. Wearing a cast that held her finger that was almost severed by a bullet, Caldwell walked up to the open casket, shook her head and walked away, tears puddling in her eyes. It was one of the first times since the shooting that she's gone out in public.

"When someone's life drains away in front of you, you want to show your respect," she said earlier in the day. Caldwell was the only victim at the funeral.

As the mourners were preparing to leave the service, Bishop Anthony Hash of Christ the Good Shepherd American Catholic Church called on the approximately 300 people who remained outside to join in a circle for prayer.

"Lord, we thank you for the courage to stand up as people against hate," he said, while beseeching God to heal those injured physically and psychologically by the shooting.

The crowd spontaneously burst into song afterward, singing the civil rights anthem "We Shall Overcome." Smaller circles of mourners hugged, cried and continued to sing the hymn "We Are Standing on Holy Ground," and John Lennon's "Give Peace a Chance."

Talk of Overstreet and his exuberance continued throughout the songs and chants.

Ann Hines, who knew Overstreet for more than 20 years, was in the crowd.

"He had a laugh you couldn't forget. A smile as big as the outdoors. I've never seen him angry," she said.

"I know one thing -- he's smiling right now."

Staff writers CODY LOWE and KIMBERLY O'BRIEN contributed to this story.

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