Finicum's Family Remembers Him As A Man Driven By Family And Faith

More than a thousand mourners poured into Kanab, Utah, a tiny town on the border with Arizona, to celebrate the life of a rancher who died in a traffic stop in Oregon. Finicum lay dressed in white in an open wooden coffin built by his family. An American flag was placed across his chest. Spurs, boots and photos of Finicum taken at the refuge were on display in the Kaibab Stake center, the large Mormon church where the funeral was held. Alexis de Tocqueville’s “Democracy in America” and other books about U.S. history and the Constitution were placed on a table, along with a note that read: “Dad’s light reading.” Many of the mourners wore jeans and boots, and held their cowboy hats in their hands as they paid their respects. The funeral drew people from Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Oregon and Kentucky. Patriot group members were also in attendance from the Oath Keepers and the “3%” movement. Finicum’s brother Jody Finicum let out a “holy smokes,” as he looked out across the crowd. He described LaVoy as a deeply competitive person with an irreverent side, who grew up playing golf and leading potato gun fights in the sagebrush. He said LaVoy once rode his horse into the family’s living room just to see if it would fit through the door. “What I most appreciated was his example in the things that really mattered: God, family and country,” Jody Finicum said. Each of Finicum’s 11 children also spoke. They remembered him as a loving father who taught his daughters to ride horses and brand cattle alongside his sons. He studied scripture every night and encouraged his children to be active in the Mormon church. After the funeral, Finicum’s oldest daughter, Thara Tenney, questioned the FBI’s account of his death. “We are calling for a private, independent investigation to find out exactly what happened to our dad in an ambush on a lonely desolate stretch of highway in the dead of winter in eastern Oregon,” she said. The FBI released a video of the traffic stop and has said Finicum twice reached for a gun in his pocket. The Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office is leading an investigation into the incident. Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy was among those who attended the funeral. “I’m here to honor a great man,” he said, sitting horseback behind the Finicum family. “He was basically crucified.”...more