Denise Crosby: Music sets the tone of farewell to fallen soldier

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Spc. Christopher A. Patterson, 20, a 2009 graduate of West Aurora High School was a member of the 713th Engineer Company of the Indiana National Guard. He was killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan on Thursday.

Updated: February 21, 2012 8:25AM

Christopher Patterson spent most of his young life walking around with a song in his heart and red in his hair.

Both will be celebrated this week when the community says goodbye to the 20-year-old North Aurora man, who was a member of the Indiana National Guard. He was killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan on Jan. 6.

Visitation for Patterson will be from 1 to 8 p.m. Friday at Immanuel Lutheran Church, 950 Hart Road in Batavia; funeral services, also at the church, are set for 11 a.m. Saturday.

Patterson’s family is asking those who attend to honor their son by wearing red in recognition of Chris’ ginger-colored hair, of which “he was so proud,” said his father, Bob. Two funds have been set up in Patterson’s name — including one at Valparaiso University, where he was a student — that will support a scholarship for red-haired music majors.

According to his father, red became his color of choice when Chris, a 2007 graduate of West Aurora High School, realized he was subconsciously choosing it for class pictures.

But it was music that really colored the young man’s world.

Which is why it will play an important role at his funeral.

West High alumni who sang with Patterson as part of the school’s STUDy Hall Choir, will perform Saturday; as will the Valparaiso Chorale, the university’s premiere singing group; and Vovox, an all-male a cappella group from Valparaiso. Patterson was a member of both Valparaiso ensembles.

There also will be a soloist from Lutheran Life Communities, a long-term care facility in Arlington Heights, where Chris’ dad was employed.

Always singing

According to Bob Patterson, his son was singing almost as soon as he could talk. And from the beginning, “you could tell he had a special gift” — a talent inherited from his paternal grandfather, who was director of the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir.

In middle school, like most kids that age, “we could not get him to sit down and practice” on the piano, his dad recounted with a chuckle. And when Chris reluctantly did so, he’d play so “miserably” that his parents would warn him he would do nothing but fail if he didn’t give it more effort.

Then he’d come back from competitions with perfect scores.

“Everything he did,” said Bob Patterson, “it just all would fall into place.”

The only musical production Chris did not take part in at West High was “Rent.” West was the first high school in the nation to perform the award-winning Broadway musical, which is based on a cast of straight and gay characters from New York City, some of whom were coping with drug addiction, infidelity, homelessness and AIDS.

God first

His father said Chris, who placed God first in his life, refused to take part because of his moral convictions; and stood by his guns, even when he took some heat for that stand.

“He and his friends would disagree and have some heavy debates,” said Bob Patterson. “But when it was all over, their friendships were just as solid.”

Music, his dad said, was how Chris expressed himself emotionally. When sad things would happen and he could not talk about it, he would sit at the piano and begin to play ... “and somehow his feelings would pour out.”

This weekend, no doubt, emotions will run the gamut as friends and family raise their voices in song to honor the red-haired young music man who chose to put his studies on hold so he could help defend his country.

Music brought Chris “such joy,” says his father, and that is how he wants to be remembered.