Christina Foreman fought through her grief with defiance at a memorial service for her parents Thursday. Her mom, Cynthia McLelland, and her stepfather Mike, district attorney in Kaufman County, were gunned down last weekend in a case that remains unsolved.
“We can’t let the fear of what people are going to do to us or say to us or what they’re going to do to our families stop us from doing the right thing,” Foreman said. “The right thing is never easy. It’s hard. And he knew that. And he stood up anyway. And I will stand up any day and stand shoulder to shoulder with my parents and say, ‘They’re not going to win. And that we will continue to fight.”
Foreman said the only way her parents’ deaths become a tragedy is if people don’t stand up for what’s right.
Family friend Leah Phillips said the McLellands were deeply in love with each other, their work and their community.
“I can’t tell you how much we loved and adored this couple and their family,” Phillips said. “The world will never ever be the same without them. Cynthia, my sister, I’ll see you on the other side.”
Gov. Rick Perry traveled to Sunnyvale First Baptist Church in Mesquite to pay tribute, and he assured the family that the community was with them – and not just the local community.
“I’m talking about the millions of people across the state that are standing you in this tragedy,” he said, “sharing your pain in a very real way.”
Thursday’s service in Mesquite included a 21-gun salute, a flag-draped coffin, and flyover. The McLellands will be laid to rest at a funeral Friday morning in Wortham.
