THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 1, 1994 TAG: 9409010599
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: KAREN E. QUINONES MILLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 89 lines
Jean ``Nana'' Frazier sat silently throughout most of the funeral on Wednesday, only occasionally wiping at her eyes with the white handkerchief clutched in her hands.
It was her grandson who was being buried, and she said it was the saddest day of her life.
``It is so disturbing to me that this is the second funeral of a 17-year-old that I have presided over in less than two weeks,'' said the Rev. Ernest Trueblood as he stood over Jerrell Stokes' casket at the Smith and Williams Funeral Home. ``The second that died in the same violent way.''
Jean Frazier, 67, bowed her head and sighed.
Stokes, one of Frazier's 12 grandchildren, was fatally wounded in a drive-by shooting Sunday morning as he and his friends stood outside a home in the 5100 block of Princess Anne Road.
His mother, Kim Fields, was at the scene and tried to keep her oldest son alive by administering CPR, but the young Lake Taylor High School student died in a hospital a few hours later.
Police said the slaying was gang-related. A 16-year-old was arrested in connection with the incident and charged with murder. He was arraigned Wednesday morning in Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court.
Most of the teenagers at the funeral were friends of Jerrell. Some wore sweat shirts, some wore ball caps, and a few - a very few - wore shirts and ties. Many began to sob and hug each other as the Whitney Houston song ``I'll Always Love You'' was played.
About five plainclothes police officers attended the funeral. The Fraziers said they had received anonymous telephone calls that friends of the arrested 16-year-old would try to disrupt the service.
But there was no disruption. Frazier sat with her husband, Stanley, 69, and her daughter, Kim Fields, and quietly suffered through the funeral of a child she considered both son and grandson.
Tuesday, Frazier talked about her relationship with Jerrell.
``He was the start of my second family,'' said Frazier, a dignified woman with long white hair pulled softly into a bun as she sat on the living room couch in the Bromley home. ``It was here that his mother brought him from the hospital.''
Although she had already raised her own four children, Frazier said raising Jerrell and his four brothers was never a burden. She was glad to help her daughter, who was going through a divorce from the children's father. Even when Kim moved and left the children, she didn't mind. They brought joy and laughter to her life.
And they brought their many friends. Friends who, like her grandchildren, began to call her ``Nana.'' Friends who developed their own relationships with her and dropped by to see her whether her grandchildren were there or not.
``How are you doing, Nana?'' asked a young African-American man as he walked in the door.
``Oh, Rob. It's so good to see you,'' Frazier said, and then began to cry. ``I'm sorry, but seeing you brings back so many memories.''
The man, Robert Harris, 23, now a deputy sheriff in Norfolk, was one of the many young men who used to stop by the Frazier home on a regular basis to talk and be around friends.
He moved quickly over to the couch and gathered Jean Frazier in his arms as she continued to sob.
``Rob is like part of the family,'' Frazier said as she braved a smile.
So were many of the people whom the Fraziers met.
``I met Nana through Jerrell when I was teaching him in the sixth grade,'' said Amy Tomasulo, a teacher at Rosemont Middle School.
``I always thought he was a lovely child, and when I met Nana I realized how lucky those kids were to have her. She loved them, she loved each and every one of them,'' Tomasulo said after the funeral.
``And Jerrell was her angel, her angel on Earth. It's tearing me up to see Nana go through this now,'' Tomasulo said.
Frazier was silent and no longer crying as she got into the limousine that would take her to the Woodlawn Memorial Gardens, where her grandson was to be buried.
Her children and grandchildren were her whole life, she had said. Now a part of her life was about to go to his grave. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
IAN MARTIN/Staff
The family of Jerrell Stokes, who was fatally wounded in a drive-by
shooting Sunday morning, paid their last respects at his funeral
Wednesday. A 16-year-old was arrested in the shooting, which police
say was gang-related.
KEYWORDS: MURDER SHOOTING DRIVE-BY SHOOTING by CNB