About 200 people from around Newton County and surrounding areas honored the life of retired Sgt. Roy Earl Nielsen at the Mississippi Veterans Memorial Cemetery on Friday morning.
Nielsen was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. He joined the Air Force on Sept. 5, 1967, served his country in Vietnam and was honorably discharged Sept. 4, 1973. He was a Vietnam veteran and served as an aircraft mechanic earning the rank of sergeant. He died Feb. 3 at the state V.A. hospital in Jackson, he was 71.
While he may not have had many blood relatives here, he became close to Alea Werkheiser and her family. She knew Nielsen through his sister. She and Nielsen’s sister went to Sunday school together, and Werkheiser’s children adopted his sister as “granny” and she lived with them until her death
All the while, Nielsen became close to Werkheiser’s family, especially Randy.
“Randy loved dinosaurs and he loved Randy,” Werkheiser said. “If he found a dinosaur at a garage sale, he’d get it and bring back to Randy. So we had all kinds of little dinosaurs in our house. He even took a National Geographic from a doctor’s office to bring home to him. He was so excited. We just loved him so much.”
During the ceremony, Werkheiser received the flag that was draped across Nielsen’s casket.
Terry “Low Ride” McMillan, one of the Patriot Riders from Forest, said he was honored to deliver the eulogy of this American hero.
“When you can pay respects to someone who served his country, especially our combat veterans, it’s quite an honor to be able to stand say something about their service and to recognize them for what they have done,” McMillan said. “And what Roy did, what our veterans did, the did it for all of those back home, their friends, their family, their neighbors and everyone back home.”
Stacy Pickering, executive director of the state Veterans Affairs board, thanked media outlets for getting the word out to the state on such short notice and everyone who came out to the Mississippi State Veterans Cemetery in Newton to honor Nielsen.
“Community has shown out in great support,” Pickering said. “A couple hundred folks came out today to say thank you to a veteran who in the 1960s and 70s raised his right hand as young man and said, ‘I want to defend our nation.’”
