A true slice of Savannah turns out to say goodbye to Ben Tucker (lots of photos)

Ben Tucker’s passing is certainly one of the saddest and most newsworthy events in recent memory here in Savannah.

But the New Orleans-style processional after the funeral service at Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Ascension was joyous and beautiful.

And it was an amazing display of Savannah itself.

If you’re from Savannah and personally invested at all in civic life, you’re likely to recognize at least a couple of dozen people in the pics below. I’m not going to try to point out who they all are right now.

After Ben’s family and friends go through a period of mourning, we’ll begin thinking about ways to permanently honor him, which would be richly deserved.

But there was something beautiful yesterday in the procession from the church to Ellis Square, where some of the city’s best players performed in Ben’s honor just a few yards from the Johnny Mercer statue.

I ended up with a lot of photos that are nearly identical, and I literally ended up with well over 100 that I wanted to post, but that’s a little excessive . . . But I found it too hard to whittle it down much

It will also be interesting to see, given the number of photographers and other folks with cameras around, how many photos get publicly posted. Mangue Banzima has some great shots up at his Qui Style blog. I’ve seen a few great isolated shots posted by media outlets and one beautiful album shared semi-privately by a photographer on Facebook, but I’m hoping we’ll see more.