Petty Officer Darnell Gamble signed Lakeina Monique Francis up for the U.S. Navy only six months ago at the recruiting office in Statesville.

Francis, 19, had attended schools as far away as California and Louisiana before settling with relatives in the rural community of Woodleaf, in Rowan County. She was joining the Navy just after her father left a 22-year Navy career.

Saturday afternoon, Gamble kneeled in a cemetery and presented Francis’ parents, Sandra and Ronald, with folded flags. Sandra Francis clinched the flag tightly against her bosom and rocked softly.

“I’d like to thank the American people for their support and love throughout our grief,” Ronald Francis told a crowd of reporters.

The death of Francis and 16 others aboard the USS Cole two weeks ago shocked the nation. The Navy destroyer was refueling in a port on the coast of Yemen, in the Middle East, when terrorists blew a hole in the side of it.

In the Salisbury National Cemetery annex at the W.G. “Bill” Hef-ner VA Medical Center, family members sat under a 20-by-20-foot gazebo as a line of 21 men in crisp, white suits fired rifles three times.

Before the Catawba football game at nearby Shuford Stadium, Catawba President Fred Corriher had called for a moment of silence.

But the bugler’s mournful rendition of Taps at the cemetery was broken by the sound of James Brown’s “I Feel Good,” which blared from the football stadium just a few hundred yards away.

In a simple, white church with frosted glass windows in Cleveland, friends, family and Navy officers spoke warmly of Francis. Speakers at Cornerstone Baptist Church included classmates from Francis’ former high school in Goldsboro. There was a co-worker from the Sears department store in Statesville where Francis had been a sales clerk before joining the Navy.

High school friend Clara Bell said Francis helped her to graduate on time from Eastern Wayne High School. When Bell found out she would be held back because she failed a computer course, Francis helped her for three days after school — even taking off from her job to help.

“When I found out about her death, I just couldn’t accept it,” Bell told the room of about 200 people. “She was my sister.”

Other friends Francis developed during her brief time in Woodleaf also spoke.

“I remember when she said, ‘Momma, I’m going to make Woodleaf famous,’ ” friend Lavon Gray said. “Well Kia, you have. Kia, you put Woodleaf on the map.”

“We are going to miss you,” aunt Lisa Myers said. “Your laughter, your smile, the way you kept us up with your late-night talks…

“You left us so young, so soon,” said Myers, her voice breaking. “You were so pure.”

Gamble, the recruiter, read a letter from Francis she wrote to him while in boot camp. When she passed her physical training test June 1, she did 100 sit-ups, 85 push- ups and ran a mile and a half in 12 minutes, 15 seconds.

“ ‘I was crying so loud when I was running because I was in so much pain,’ ” Gamble said Francis wrote. “This is a girl who couldn’t do five push-ups in her life.”

“She wasn’t just an applicant,” Gamble said. “She was family.”

Cmdr. Pressley Stutts, a Navy chaplain, has spent almost every day with Francis’ family since word on Oct. 12 that she was missing after the USS Cole was bombed. He went with the family to Norfolk, Va. for a service for Francis and the other 16 aboard the USS Cole who were killed.

“You have nothing to do but talk and share your life stories,” he said of the ride there. “And that’s exactly what we did. For six hours down and six hours back. She loved to laugh, she loved to boss her brothers around.”

“And she hated to cook,” said Stutts, noting that Francis — a mess management specialist who worked aboard the Cole’s kitchen — hoped to become a military police officer.

Congressman Mel Watt of Charlotte also attended the service. “There are times when words simply can’t come to express the emotions we have,” Watt said. “She died standing in defense of our freedoms, our country and our democracy.”

Friends have set up an account to raise money for brothers David and James Francis to attend college. Donations may be made at any Bank of America branch in the name of the Lakeina M. Francis Memorial Scholarship Fund. The fund will be managed by Francis’ surviving family members.