A friend, bouncer, father and four-time husband was remembered on Thursday in the suburban Detroit watering hole he saw as his second home – and the place he had requested for his funeral.
Jimmy Lehr’s open pine casket was parked on the dance floor of the All Around Bar as about 100 family members and friends paid their final respects. Lehr, who had pulmonary disease and congestive heart failure, died on February 7.
The unusual funeral fit Lehr’s outsized, singular personality. Clergy mixed easily with beefy tattooed men and his wife and at least one ex-wife mingled.
The casket was placed near where Lehr’s fourth wedding, to Patricia, was held in 1996.
In a mix of Saturday night and Sunday morning, Lehr, 58, was eulogised by many, including several of his four children and 10 grandchildren, and third ex-wife, Cheryl Lehr, as well as bar owner Dave Karlson.
“I never met a more pure heart than this man,” said chaplain Janine Folks. “He was real.”
Despite the unorthodox location, Folks was honoured to participate. “I’ve never done a funeral in camouflage pants,” she said. She had donned them in honour of the avid hunter and angler.
Karlson said Lehr had worked at the blue-collar locale, which also hosted his wake on Wednesday, since 1986. The bar’s name fit Lehr’s responsibilities over the years, which included stints as a bouncer, doorman and manager. – Sapa-AP