Staff Sgt. Shannon Weaver, a 28-year-old soldier who was killed in Iraq on Monday, graduated from Piedmont High School in Alabama and also lived in Cedartown, his grandmother said Thursday.
Gammage Funeral Home in Cedartown confirmed Thursday it was arranging funeral services for Weaver, who died from wounds suffered when several roadside bombs detonated near his vehicle in south Baghdad.
Weaver was a combat engineer who joined the Army in July 2001 and was assigned to Fort Richardson, Alaska, in January 2005.
As a teen, Weaver spent many of his Sundays at Shiloh Baptist Church in Polk County, his grandmother Joan Weaver said.
The church held a special meaning for Weaver, his grandmother said. He made friends there and was baptized there. And now, at his own request, he will soon be put to rest at the little country church he loved so much.
Weaver remembers her grandson as a kind-hearted boy, one who would do anything for people. “He was so sweet, such a sweet boy, but he was tough, too.”
Weaver attended school in Cedartown for several years, his grandmother said, before moving to Piedmont High School in Alabama in 1994.
He spent several years with his grandparents, living just across the Alabama border in Borden Springs.
Soon after graduation, he moved to Missouri and signed up with the Army. That’s how he met his wife of five years. Both served multiple tours of duty in Iraq. This was Weaver’s third.
Weaver said her grandson was a hard worker and loved to run. “He ran all the time. He loved body-building.”
Funeral arrangements were incomplete Thursday night.
