'One Last Job': The Unseen Duties Of Honoring A Hero

TUSCALOOSA, AL — Dezuro Hewitt regularly digs three or four graves a week working for Hauck Enterprises. It's steady work that he takes pride in.

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The standard measurement for a grave, he explained as the Thursday morning sun beat down on one of the hottest days of the year, is 52 inches wide by 62 inches deep. As this reporter came to learn, the stakes are much higher than what one would assume when it comes to the careful details involved in a burial.

In the romantic sense, each grave represents a life story, but Hewitt has a job to do, so the names are understandably hard to keep up with and he often gives little more thought to one grave than he would another.

But that all changed Wednesday, when he and co-worker Jaylon Hardy were tasked with gravesite preparations at Memory Hill Gardens on Skyland Boulevard for Mississippi police officer and Tuscaloosa native Kennis Croom, who was shot and killed in the line of duty last Thursday while responding to a call in Meridian.

The two men took a quick break in the shade of a yellow excavator to speak with me about the rare experience of burying a hero. Despite both men speaking to the privilege of preparing Croom's final resting place, the focus of their work had already moved on to preparing another gravesite. It's the most consistent part of the job — there's always another grave to dig.

On their excavator, a concrete headstone waiting to be set was suspended by a set of straps roughly six feet off the ground.

"I've done this a lot, but we’ve never had anything of this caliber," Hewitt said. "But we’ve been doing a lot of work on it to make sure it's just right. It's just a regular procedure, but it's been on my mind — more so thinking of him and just the situation. It really is a lot bigger than normal."

Indeed, Hewitt and Hardy said numerous people had come up to them to inquire about arrangements for Croom's funeral, which made them even more acutely aware of the importance of the job before them.

The concrete vault for Croom's final resting place had yet to be installed Thursday morning, as plywood boards unceremoniously covered the fresh chasm. In most ways, the grave is not unlike the scores of others in Memory Hill Gardens, but both men said they would always remember this one.

"I feel a little more saddened," Hewitt said. "Normally, I don’t feel nothing. In a week's time we might get several of these, but for him, it's the simple fact he was so close to the community. It hits a bit different."

Click here for a full list of events as Tuscaloosa celebrates the life of Kennis Croom.

The Arrangements

Marques Weary is a young man with a difficult, yet essential job.

A licensed funeral director and embalmer for Northport Funeral and Cremation Services on Watermelon Road, Weary is responsible for providing compassion and professionalism when handling life's most heart-wrenching moments.

Like the two men who labored in the brutal sun to dig Croom's grave on the other side of town, Weary has a job to do.

Still, the privilege of being trusted with handling arrangements for a hero is not lost on him and others amid the busy day-to-day operations of a funeral service.

"We actually did the services for Officer Croom's grandmother two years ago, so I was very familiar with the family when I got to speaking and talking to them and that's important," he told me. "But it is a privilege and honor that they chose Northport Funeral and Cremation Services and we’re definitely going to fulfill their wishes."

The large sanctuary in the Northport funeral home was silent on Wednesday as rows of chairs sat empty and no music played. But Weary and others expect what could be largest attendance the business has ever seen, as numerous memorial events are planned to celebrate Croom's life on Saturday.

"The family is very detailed and they gave me an instructions list with times and descriptions for everything, so that has helped me out a lot as far as us being organized here at the funeral home," he said, "and I can coordinate with the Honor Guard and police departments and escorts to make sure they are aware of the times and arrival times, dismissal times so we are all on the same page. We want things to be smooth, organized and to the family’s wishes."

Weary stressed how every family who comes through the funeral home is treated with the same degree of respect and professionalism, but admitted that the funeral for a young police officer killed in the line of duty brings to the surface a different set of emotions when approaching the job.

There is also an unseen, yet understandable pressure on Weary that is easy to overlook for those unaware.

"This is my first one [for an active duty death] and going forward I hopefully know if I ever have to do this again with another family, I’ll know what to expect and what to look for," he said. "It weighs on you and it's very rare ... There is a difference when it comes to anyone serving active duty. We serve a lot of retired veterans, retired police officers, but with active duty, you’re going to expect more for a celebration of life, things like a 21-gun salute, the last and final call they will do with the dispatcher. This has all been a learning experience for me."

'One Last Job'

While some of those tasked with weaving together the details of Croom's funeral are encountering such an event for the first time, Tuscaloosa Police Department Lt. Lachlan Chronister knows all too well what the next couple of days will involve.

The commander of TPD's Honor Guard and a 15-year veteran of the department, Chronister led the unit in 2019 for ceremonies honoring the life of Tuscaloosa Police Investigator Dornell Cousette, who was also shot and killed in the line of duty.

"This one is a little bit different, Kennis being from here, but he didn't work here," Chronister said, mentioning that Croom had served as an intern at TPD before embarking on his professional law enforcement career, which took him to places like Eutaw, Vance and cities in Mississippi. "Typically, as soon as we're notified, we begin preparations. With Cousette, we knew immediately."

The TPD Honor Guard is a supplemental position for its members and is made up of sworn officers who serve in other full-time roles within the department. Chronister, for instance, works evening shift as the patrol lieutenant.

"Once the family had selected dates for service, for visitation on Friday, then we started planning the little details that go with it ... what everybody sees," he explained.

These visible details include the folding of the American flag, "Taps" being played on a bugle, a helicopter flyover and one of the most sobering components — the last radio call with dispatch.

A large public event will be held at Shelton State Community College on Friday, which was the same site for the public funeral for Cousette. Chronister and the rest of the TPD Honor Guard will be on hand for the range of ceremonies and will be present when Croom's casket is lowered.

The pageantry and formality surrounding a funeral for a law enforcement officer has evolved over the years, Chronister explained, with families in the past bearing most of the burden and responsibility for organizing specific memorials to honor the fallen officer's service.

Honor Guards like TPD's, he said, formed as a way to provide a fitting memorial not just for the officer's life and family, but for the officers left behind to mourn.

While many involved expressed the outright privilege of having some involvement in the ceremonies to honor Croom, Chronister spoke more to a sense of duty.

"Theres nobody left to recognize the sacrifice these guys made, beyond what we do," he said of the TPD Honor Guard. "So if we don't do it, a lot of times it just doesn't happen. It's also to honor the families after they've lost that person. The ceremony is that one little bit the department can give them. But then there's a third side for law enforcement for the officers who served, as a way for them to say goodbye."

When asked about the mindset he and the rest of the TPD Honor Guard carry when going into a funeral for a fallen officer, he said it was important to realize what you're there for. This is when stoicism becomes critical, as the officers have to keep their own emotions in check during a ceremony that just as easily could have been for them.

"You have to tell yourself 'I'm there to present this and to honor this man in a way that doesn't take away from anything he did' and me being emotional wouldn't benefit his family and legacy," Chronister said. "Honoring the fallen — that's our mission. You can call it duty, but it's our mission and that's how we look at this. There's one last job that has to be carried out."

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