UPDATE Troopers and dispatcher are remembered at memorial

YAKIMA, Wash. — Gov. Chris Gregoire briefly choked up as she spoke during a memorial service this afternoon at the Yakima Valley SunDome for two Washington State Patrol troopers and a dispatcher who died in a house fire last week.

In her speech before hundreds of police, family members and members of the public, Gregoire reminisced about the work of Trooper Kristopher Sperry when he worked in security at the governor’s mansion several years ago.

"He meant a lot to us," she said. "He was an example of what the best there is in the Washington State Patrol."

She also praised the work of Trooper Gary Miller and his wife, Anne Miller-Hewitt, a State Patrol communications officer.

She referred to a story about how Miller lent his car to a couple of hunters whose car broken down.

"The story that the chief shared with you is now infamous in the Washington State Patrol," she said. "The fact of the matter is he set an example for us. Years later, the people who lent that vehicle remember his kindness."

She also recalled Miller-Hewitt’s last moments in life as she called 9-1-1 to report the fire that would take her life.

"She calmly called that day to her colleagues the night of the fire and even then when her life was at stake she made everyone feel confident and assured," Gregoire said.

State Patrol Chief John Batiste quoted Martin Luther King Jr.: "Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?"

"No doubt these three people answered this question in their service to the country and in their service to the citizens of Washington," Batiste said. "For that we thank them we celebrate their life and we shall never forget them."

The service, which started at 1 p.m., followed a memorial procession of about 200 police cars from across the Pacific Northwest. The procession began 32 miles away in Sunnyside.

As it made its way west on Interstate 82, the procession passed groups of people gathered on overpasses and along city streets to honor the three.

Among the more than two dozen people gathered on a bridge just north of Zillah as the procession passed was Doug Himsl, a real estate broker from Prosser.

Himsl said he didn’t know State Patrol troopers or dispatchers, but said it was important to honor the three for often thankless jobs they carried out.

"These guys put their lives on the line every day. The least I can do is show some respect," he said.

"You just don’t see something like this everyday," said Dan DeRuyter, a Lower Valley dairy operator. "They serve the community and they deserve a little appreciation from the community. This is pretty much the least we can do."

"It’s all about community, the community ought to stick together," said 39-year-old Zillah tattoo artist Phillip Tucker

In Union Gap, 57-year-old Gladys Huntley, 57, a retired long haul trucker and army wife, brought her two grandchildren to watch the procession.

"I’m here today because my heart is sad for the officers lost in the fire and I wanted to show my support. I really want to thank them for getting up in the morning and going to work," she said.

On her van she hung a large American flag and a sign reading "God Bless You All."

The approximately 200-vehicle procession included local, state and federal law enforcement officers, some from as far as Montana and Idaho.

The procession is expected to reach the Yakima Valley SunDome at about noon. A memorial service is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.

The Aug. 16 deaths of Miller and Sperry and Miller-Hewitt marked the largest single loss of life in the State Patrol’s 89-year history. The three died of smoke inhalation when the couple's Zillah-area home was destroyed by fire.

Investigators have not determined a cause for the fire but have ruled out arson.

Today’s procession includes police cars from around the Pacific Northwest. Its size has required a rolling shutdown of a 31-mile stretch of I-82 between its start in Sunnyside to Union Gap, where the procession will leave the freeway and enter Union Gap.

In addition to Gregoire and Batiste, speakers at the SunDome memorial are scheduled to include tributes from a number of fellow officers and friends.

The Aug. 16 fire gutted the Millers' home on Falcon Ridge Road outside Zillah. Sperry was living there temporarily until his home was built.

Miller was a 20-year veteran of the State Patrol who, along with Sperry, worked out of the patrol's detachment, or field office, in Grandview. Miller-Hewitt was the manager of the State Patrol's emergency dispatch center in Wenatchee.

-- Yakima Herald-Republic staff