The 32-year-old woman, who was the youngest of 10 black people killed in a Buffalo supermarket, recalled being sincere and quick with laughter before Saturday’s funeral.
Roberta Drury grew up in the Syracuse area and moved to Buffalo ten years ago to help her brother in his fight against leukemia. She was shot dead last Saturday while traveling to buy groceries at Tops Friendly Market, the target of an armed man.
The final farewell to “Robbie” was to take place on Saturday morning in the huge brick church of the Assumption in Syracuse, near the place where she grew up in Cicero.
Her family wrote in her obituary that she “could not walk a few steps without meeting a new friend.”
The second is the second victim of the shooting, which is honored.
A private service was held on Friday for Hayward Patterson, a favorite deacon at the church near the supermarket. Additional funerals were scheduled for the following week.
Tops urged people to join their stores with a minute of silence to honor the memory of the victims of Saturday’s shooting at 2:30 p.m., the approximate time of the attack a week earlier.
In the evening a candlelight duty is planned in the Buffalo supermarket.
