Ohio mother upset over funeral protests

WAPAKONETA, Ohio, Feb. 1 (UPI) -- An Ohio woman said she is upset that people from a Kansas church plan to picket the funeral of her son, who died while serving in the U.S. Army in Iraq.

Cindy Schoolcraft Hooker of Lima, Ohio, said the church is showing disrespect for her son, Sgt. Jon Michael Schoolcraft III, 26, who was killed Jan. 18.

"He was over there for them, too," Hooker told the Dayton (Ohio) Daily News.

Schoolcraft's funeral is scheduled for Saturday in Wapakoneta, Ohio.

Members of Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, protest military funerals because they claim the Iraq war is punishment for the nation's tolerance to homosexuality.

The newspaper said the church also plans to picket before slain Marine Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach's funeral Saturday in Vandalia, Ohio. Lauterbach was stationed at Camp Lejeune, N.C., near where her remains and those of her unborn baby were found this month.