Luke Scully's body found
Walt Chapman
By Bob Keefer
The Register-Guard
Officials in Thailand have identified the body of a 37-year-old Oregon man
who had been missing from a resort there since the Dec. 26 tsunami, his
family said Thursday.
The body of Luke Scully, who grew up in Pleasant Hill, was identified last
week through fingerprints. He is to be cremated in Thailand on Saturday, and
his ashes are to be sent home to his mother, Tangerine, in Mendocino, Calif.
Still missing is the dead man's girlfriend, Portland real estate agent and
University of Oregon graduate Angela Foust.
The couple were vacationing at a beachfront resort in Thailand when the
tsunami struck.
Tangerine said Thursday that the Red Cross offered to fly her to Thailand to
witness her son's cremation this weekend, but she declined.
Instead, she and other family members are planning a trip to Thailand next
December to commemorate his death on the anniversary of the disaster, which
may have claimed as many as 300,000 lives.
Luke Scully grew up in the extended family around the Grateful Dead.
Tangerine was a member of the group's early entourage; Luke Scully's father,
Rock Scully, was a manager for the band.
Luke Scully's stepmother, Nicki Scully, lives in Eugene. She said his body
was recovered soon after the disaster and fingerprinted, though the
identification was not made until last week. She said he apparently died of
blunt force trauma and not drowning, but she knew little else about his
death.
She found little comfort in the official confirmation of his death. The grim
reality of the body's identification, Scully said, removed the last shred of
hope, however fantastic it was, that the couple had somehow survived.
That hope also helped buffer the unpleasant images of a sudden and violent
death that had become familiar to family members who spent hours searching
morgue photos posted on the Internet in the weeks after the tsunami, she
said.
"We had become somewhat comfortable with this romantic notion of Luke and
Angie being swallowed up by the sea," Scully said. "And, you know, having
seen pictures of the process of trying to identify people, we were actually
pretty comfortable with that never happening."
Tangerine said much the same thing.
"I'm getting used to it now," she said. "We all had this scenario in our
minds of them being just lost out to sea."
Scully, who worked in the Hollywood film industry while living in Portland,
is also survived by his brother, David Caldwell of Pleasant Hill, and two
sisters, Ruby and Pearl Steinbrecher of Oakland, Calif.
Crosby4Prez
Civet Cat
grateful that my mother's name was not Tangerine.
JM
Richard Morris
"Civet Cat" <meek...@sbcglobal.net> wrote in message
news:C2wYd.9486$YD4....@newssvr12.news.prodigy.com...
> My sincere condolences go out to the Scully family. Also, I am quite
> grateful that my mother's name was not Tangerine.
>
> JM
Hers isn't either, really.
Always wondered what led her to that nickname ... only thing I could come up
with was the Herb Alpert tune. Anybody know?
R.
Roxanne McDaniel
The Iron Muffin
band beyond description
"Walt Chapman" <wcha...@hookgci.net> wrote in message
news:1134b07...@corp.supernews.com...
> Body of tsunami victim from Oregon identified
> By Bob Keefer
> The Register-Guard
>
> Officials in Thailand have identified the body of a 37-year-old Oregon man
> who had been missing from a resort there since the Dec. 26 tsunami, his
> family said Thursday.
>
> The body of Luke Scully, who grew up in Pleasant Hill, was identified last
> week through fingerprints. He is to be cremated in Thailand on Saturday,
and
> his ashes are to be sent home to his mother, Tangerine, in Mendocino,
Calif.
At least the ID means closure, in this case. Condolences to friends and
family.
--
Peace,
~ Steve
"Sleep in the stars, don't you cry, dry your eyes on the wind..."