Jonathan M. Pitts
Baltimore Sun
(TNS)
Firefighters and police officers in their dress uniforms stood three deep beside the driveway of the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen on North Baltimore’s Charles Street as ten of their brethren maneuvered a flag-covered casket down the front steps of the church.
A throng of civilians stood around and behind them, their eyes riveted on the pallbearers as they wheeled their fallen comrade through.
And members of the unit that Firefighter/EMT Rodney Pitts III served with before losing his life in a fire last week lifted his coffin onto the back of a truck he knew well, Engine No. 29, before securing it in for the journey to the cemetery that awaited.
“That moment was overwhelming,” said Wanda Thomas, the mother of Marcus Miller, a Baltimore firefighter who accompanied Pitts’ mother, Monica Gant, during the somber procession. “You knew this was the last time he would be on that truck. But we know that this happened while he was doing something that he loved doing. We hope he’s at peace.”
Rodney William Pitts III, a city native who had been in service as a firefighter and EMT with the Baltimore City Fire Department since August, died of injuries he suffered in a blaze that tore through several rowhouses Oct. 19 in the Woodmere neighborhood of Northwest Baltimore.
The impact he made during that short tenure with the department was evident before, during and after the 10 a.m. funeral service Friday.
Baltimore Police in cars with flashing lights cordoned off every street for a mile in each direction. Fire trucks and emergency vehicles were parked bumper-to-bumper, two deep, along North Charles Street from Cold Spring Lane to Northern Parkway.
Most of the city’s 1,600 firefighters were present, according to department spokesperson Kevin Cartwright, prompting the force to call reinforcements in from several surrounding counties to serve in their place Friday. Firefighters and police from as far away as Boston, Philadelphia and Richmond, Virginia, took part in processions and formations.
“It’s a brotherhood,” said John Brinkley Sr., a retired Baltimore City firefighter who traveled from his home in Salisbury, when asked why he made the trip.
By the time the service got under way, the 2,000-seat sanctuary was full with uniformed personnel on one side of the church, civilians on the other.
In the interest of privacy, the Pitts family requested that no press be allowed inside during the service, but speakers on the program included Maryland Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott, Baltimore City Fire Chief James Wallace and two of Pitts’ relatives, Ronald “Ronnie” Dalton and Dr. Eugene Fields, Jr.
According to Pitts’ great-uncle, Michael Willis, speakers focused on the fact that the firefighter was “a really nice guy, a fun-loving person,” a young man who told jokes, loved fishing and once aspired to be a police officer.
“He got along with everybody,” Willis said. “You couldn’t find anything bad to say about him. He just wanted to do good.”
That gibed with the portrait of Pitts that emerged from the funeral program, a leaflet bearing his photo titled “A Fallen Hero’s Story.”
“The day I was being born I had my mother in labor for two days,” according to “Dear Family,” a letter his mother and other relatives wrote on his behalf for the program. “Right then she should have known I will always be late ... sorry for biting you all when we were younger.”
“Rodney was an old soul with a kind and generous heart and spirit,” the attached obituary said. “He had a smile that would light your heart and the room. He had a great sense of humor but was usually late for everything.”
Pitts attended Baltimore City Public Schools and graduated from Digital Harbor High School in 2011, it continued. He was a diehard Ravens and Orioles fan, baptized at the age of 11 and attended Mt. Hebron Baptist Church in Clifton Park. Survivors in his large extended family include two children, Arianna and Hendrix Pitts; a brother and five sisters; his parents, Monica Gant and Rodney Pitts, Jr.; five grandparents and “a host of other aunts, uncles, cousins, nephews and friends.”
Pitts’ paternal grandparent, Curtis Willis, fleshed out the portrait of the fallen firefighter moments after the procession bore his remains to Engine 29.
Many stories about his late grandson, Willis said, revolve around the days he and Pitts spent fishing on the Chesapeake Day in Willis’ small boat.
One day, as Willis tried to reel in a big fish, he exclaimed, “Come to Big Daddy! Come to Big Daddy!” — only to hear Pitts adapt the phrase to himself.
“He said, ‘Come to Baby Daddy! Come to Baby Daddy!” Willis said, and the half-dozen relatives around him laughed.
He looked at the lines of people still emerging from the church.
“It was great to have all this support today,” he said.
Pitts was interred at Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens later in the day.
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