The sound of a piece of packing tape being peeled off the roll cut through the silence on McCallie Avenue.
Hunter Black, a clerk at the law offices of Gearhiser, Peters, Elliott & Cannon, was decorating a brick ledge outside the building with small American flags. The funeral procession was about 20 minutes out.
“We wanted Mr. Coolidge and his family to know how much we appreciate him and his service to our country,” Black said. “This is a small way to honor him.”
A ceremony for Charles H. Coolidge, the country’s oldest Medal of Honor recipient when he died April 6 at 99, was about to begin down the street at First Presbyterian Church. An hour after that, Coolidge would be laid to rest at the Chattanooga National Cemetery.
Friday was a day to say farewell to one of Chattanooga’s most beloved sons. A hero in every sense of the word and a military veteran who redefined what it meant to be brave, Coolidge was a proud son, brother, father and grandfather who never wanted to be in the spotlight but nevertheless lived in it because of the courage he showed more than 70 years ago at a European border town in France.