Goodbye to Forest Lake hero

To the rest of the world, he was a war hero, but in the tiny mountain hamlet he called home, Willie Kescoli Begay was Cheii Willie: the guy who loved "Matlock" reruns, commodity cheese and Juicy Fruit chewing gum.

He was a Navajo Code Talker who witnessed the iconic flag-raising at Iwo Jima, but the only vestige of his military past was the crisp pleat he ironed into his trousers every day.

Begay's large, close-knit family laid the 88-year-old ex-Marine to rest Friday in a windswept family plot atop Black Mesa.

A herd of sheep - animals Begay used to call his "honeys" - trotted past, bleating as though in tribute as Pastor Jimmie Little prepared to bless the grave.

In spite of the high winds, a Marine honor guard managed to crisply fold the flag that had draped Begay's casket and present it to his widow, Alice Natonie Begay.

While some code talkers opted to continue their educations and seek a life of public service after they returned from World War II, Begay had resumed the quiet life he enjoyed before the war.

He took a job at the Piñon Mercantile, which he held from 1946 until his retirement in 1982, ran a herd of sheep, and watched his many children grow up.

He had three with his first wife, Sarah Benally, Nelson, Dennison and the late Edison Begay; and one with his second wife, Alice, Kristy Begay. Some time during his life he also fathered four others: Irene Nez, Darlene Chee, Rose Begay and Jimmy Begay.

He became a loving father to Alice's four children from a previous marriage.

But sobbing loudest at Begay's funeral were his numerous grandkids.

"His biggest concern was for the grandchildren," recalled Sybil White, delivering the eulogy at the tidy white Baptist church on Begay's sister's land high on Black Mesa.

"If they even sneezed he would say, 'Here, give them some Tylenol!'"

He always kept soda pop and bags of chips in his house in case a grandchild stopped by, she said.

As the funeral was in progress, a baby escaped from somewhere in the middle of the church and crawled up the aisle to Begay's casket as though drawn to a friendly presence.

Begay's 15-year-old grandson, Steven Blackrock Jr., wrote a poem called "Forest Lake Hero" to honor the old vet, but said he didn't learn of Begay's military service until recently.

"He was already a hero to us," Blackrock said.

Indeed, Begay's heroism started long before boot camp. When the missionaries came to Forest Lake recruiting for Fort Wingate Indian School, White said, they had targeted Begay's sister Mary.

"Don't take Mary," Begay protested. "She's too much of a homebody. She'll never last out there away from everybody. Take me instead."

It was from Fort Wingate that Begay was recruited as a code talker.

He served with the 3rd Marine Division and was overseas for 11 months. In 2001, he received a Congressional Silver Medal in recognition of his service as a Navajo Code Talker.

Begay died of cancer June 1, the third Navajo code talker to die within three weeks, after John Brown Jr. and Thomas Claw. He was Tódích'íi'nii (Bitter Water clan) born for for Hashk'aa Hadzohó (Yucca Fruit).

Fellow code talker Bahe Ketchum made the trek from his home in Navajo Mountain, Utah, to pay his last respects to Begay.

Ketchum said he didn't remember Begay, although their paths might have crossed at some point.

"I just wanted to come," Ketchum said in Navajo with his son interpreting. "We all served the same function in the war. He could have been my brother."

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