Christmas trees, snacks, magazines and other goodies arrived for service members overseas who had family or friends connected with the late George Lauer.
The packages were for more than that one service member; the contents were shared with many others in that unit, especially those who might not otherwise receive a piece of home in the brown, sandy station, said Betty Schobey, a friend and coworker of Lauer's.
Most, including her own sons, who received the packages didn't know that Lauer had a hand in sending them.
"George's name was not on the packages," she said.
But when Schobey made calls last week to find some of those recipients to be pallbearers at Laurer's funeral, they soon learned who he was.
And several of them took off work or missed a few classes to share their gratitude at service Friday at the Kutis Funeral Home Chapel, St. Louis.
"They were packages from home, not from George," Schobey said of Laurer's attitude. "George was about helping those who needed help and he was good at it."
For those who came out to serve as pallbearers, it was a bit of closure, she said.
Two were Schobey's sons Michael and David Schobey, plus Curtis King and Joshua Gass. Army 1st Sgt. (ret.) Mike O'Brian and Marine Alan Sanning, veterans with sons who received packages, both stood up to serve as pallbearers, too.
Although Schobey made calls to several families, Gass called her after reading a Jefferson City News Tribune story which said one of Lauer's final requests was for service members helped by his projects to serve as his pallbearers.
"I will never forget that telephone conversation," said fellow volunteer Chris Jarboe. "Joshua said he never met George, but after reading (the) article, he felt "called' to be one of his pallbearers. I was impressed with Joshua's genuineness to the point of getting teary-eyed on the phone."
That article was read aloud by Funeral Director Tracy Ring during the service for Laurer, who also was a Vietnam War veteran.
In recent months, he also had helped raise support for a coworker's family devastated by fire storms in Siberia.
"George was really a great guy," Schobey said.