After the memorial, Weldon Richards loads flower arrangements for the graveside service at Stafford Memorial Park. View More Images from this story Visit the Photo Place

A celebration of four lives

Nearly 1,500 gather to celebrate the lives of a North Stafford pastor and his three sons, killed one week ago.

Date published: 3/30/2002

IT WAS A TIME OF SONG, a time of praise, a time of rejoicing. And it was precisely the kind of service Tammie Armstead Pulliam desired for her family.

"My sister didn't want this to be a funeral," said Mary Armstead. "She wanted it to be a home-going."

Yesterday, at First Mount Zion Baptist Church near Dumfries, nearly 1,500 people joined the Fredericksburg native in saying good-bye to her husband, Rodney Pulliam, and their three children--10-year-old Rodney II, 8-year-old Jordan and 6-year-old Matthew.

The four were killed instantly one week ago in a chain-reaction crash as they sat in a line of traffic not far from their Frederick, Md., home.

Staring at three, small white caskets and a fourth, full-sized one draped with an American flag, it would have been easy for the assembly to mourn, to weep, to solemnly ask why.

Instead, the sanctuary was filled with music, with clapping, with shouts of "Alleluia."

"We ought to rejoice when people die in the Lord," Keith Armstead said after singing about heaven in his rendition of "I Bowed on My Knees and Cried Holy." "We ought to turn this into a revival."

Armstead was one of three siblings of Tammie Pulliam who sang at yesterday's service. And each time, the crowd was moved to clap, to stand or to raise their hands in jubilation.

Sounds of praise reverberated in the cavernous sanctuary as speaker after speaker told of Rodney Pulliam's dedication as a minister of God and their confidence that he and his young sons are now inhabitants of heaven.

"We come into this place to celebrate a life well-spent in the service of the King--lives well-spent," said Dr. A. Lincoln James, pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in Richmond and Pulliam's mentor in the ministry.

James said there would be time for grief and time for sorrow, but that yesterday was a time for thanking God.

"In the midst of the tragedy, there is good news--and the good news is that Rodney and these three little boys are not in these pretty boxes," James said.

Making reference to this weekend's celebration of Jesus Christ's resurrection, James reminded the congregation of the work of redemption.

"Because [Christ] lives, Rodney lives," James said. "Because [Christ] lives, these boys live."

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Date published: 3/30/2002