By Brett Regan ~ Little Apple Post

Over an hour before the funeral service for the Ron and Becky Bramlage family even began, the large auditorium at Junction City Middle School was completely filled.

And as bus loads of people shuttled from Junction City High School, the main concourse watch area and the middle school gym each had hundreds more gather to mourn the loss of Ron, Becky and their four children – Brandon, Boston, Beau and Roxanne. The family of six were killed in a plane crash on June 7 in Polk County, Fla., while returning home to Junction City from a family vacation in the Bahamas.

Geary Unified School District officials estimated approximately 2,000 people including family, friends, community leaders, classmates and peers attended Monday morning’s funeral service.

“I think they {Ron and Becky} touched lives,” Superintendent Ron Walker said, “They were able to understand the needs of children because they were actively involved with their own kids.”

Ron Bramlage served as a mentor for the JCHS wrestling program and Becky was the president of the USD 475 Board of Education.

“To me, this is day one,” Walker said. “This is the first day of healing.”