Lance Cpl. Tyler A. Roads

Lance Cpl. Tyler A. Roads, 20, of Burney, Calif., died July 10 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan.  He was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

At one point in high school, Tyler Allen Roads was struggling with his grades, so Larry Snelling, superintendent of the Fall River Joint Unified School District, went to have a chat with the boy he’d known for years. “He said, ‘I’ll do better. I’ll make you proud of me,’ ” Snelling said before several hundred people Saturday at the 20-year-old fallen Marine’s funeral in Burney. Snelling had no idea how much those words proved to be true. “I’m so proud to have known him,” Snelling said. “I’m so blessed to have known him.” Snelling was hardly alone. The words “pride” and “hero” and their various intonations were spoken over and over during the graveside service for Roads at the Burney District Cemetery on Bailey Avenue. “He was my hero,” said Steven Gibbs, 22, of Burney, one of four of Roads’ former schoolmates who spoke through tears during the memorial. “I hope some day I can be someone’s hero like he was mine.” The Marine lance corporal died a week earlier while supporting combat operations in Helmand province in Afghanistan, according to the Department of Defense. Last Monday would have been his 21st birthday. His flag-draped coffin was taken Friday from the Redding Municipal Airport to Burney on Friday. Hundreds lined the procession route. By at least one estimate, some 500 people attended Saturday’s service, which included a Marine honor guard. The gunshots from a 21-gun salute and the haunting melody of a Marine bugler playing taps floated through the evergreen trees. The Marines gave three folded flags to Roads’ family, one to his mother, Sonia; one to his grandmother, Olivia Stevenson; and one to his wife, Megan Stone-Roads. Family and friends revealed Saturday that Stone-Roads, 21, had discreetly married the young Marine in November. Stone-Roads and Sonia Roads shook and sobbed during the services, often leaning on each other in their grief. A 2007 graduate of Mountain View High School in Burney, Roads had lived with his grandparents, Greg and Olivia Stevenson of Burney. Sara Evans, a family friend from Burney, said the Stevensons had asked her to convey to the community how thankful they are for the outpouring of support. “She and Greg know what they had in their hearts with Tyler, and no words can express their feelings,” Evans said.