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Dusty Boyce, 19, of Pocomoke City, Md., and formerly of Parksley, and Tangier Island, a devoted son, brother, grandson, nephew, and friend, went to be with His Lord on Tuesday, June 27, 2006 at Peninsula Regional Medical Center in Salisbury from injuries sustained in an automobile accident.
Born in Hampton, Va., on Dec. 28, 1986, he was the son of Tammy and Robert Boyce of Pocomoke City.
A 2005 graduate of Holly Grove Christian School in Westover, he was a rising sophomore at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va. He had a great love for sports, especially basketball, soccer, weight lifting and most recently, kickboxing. Dusty's compassionate heart led to many close friendships, and the impact of his life continues to reach far beyond the Eastern Shore.
Dusty is survived by his mother and father, Tammy and Robert Boyce of Pocomoke City; two sisters, Gracie and Abby Boyce of Pocomoke City; maternal grandparents, Frankie and Alice Pruitt of Tangier Island; paternal grandparents, Ellen Boyce of Parksley and the late Alvin D. Boyce; aunts and uncles, Frankie and Mary Beth Pruitt of Crisfield, Md., A.D. and Carolyn Boyce of Salisbury, Md., and Matthew and Anne Powell of Gaithersburg, Md.; his special cousins, Lainie Pruitt of Crisfield, Carrie Boyce of Salisbury, and Caitlin Powell of Gaithersburg; and many other relatives and friends.
Funeral services were held Sunday, July 2, at 2 p.m. at the University of Maryland of Eastern Shore's Ella Fitzgerald Center in Princess Anne, Md. Speakers were the Rev. John Jones, the Rev. Johnny Moore, Gayle Parsons and Susan Runk. Interment was private in the First Baptist Cemetery in Pocomoke City.
Memorial contributions in lieu of flowers are requested to be sent to Light House Ministries in Keller, VA; Holly Grove Varsity Basketball Team for new uniforms; or to a scholarship fund that will be started for students of Liberty University who have lost a parent in an automobile accident.
Arrangements were made by Bradshaw & Sons Funeral Home, Crisfield.
Some people live only a short time but touch plenty of lives. Dusty Boyce was that kind of person, family members say.
Dusty, a popular teenager with ties to Parksley, Tangier and Pocomoke City, died June 27 from injuries sustained in an automobile accident.
He was 19, a rising college sophomore who didn't drink or do drugs, and he was wearing his seat belt when the crash happened.
"When you lose a child, you're pretty much hopeless and helpless," said Tammy Boyce, Dusty's mother, on Thursday.
One of her biggest fears is that people will forget her son, but that seems unlikely.
More than 1,100 people attended his funeral held at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore's Ella Fitzgerald Center.
A tour boat full of friends and relatives from Tangier, Tammy Boyce's home, attended along with college friends from as far away as Missouri and New Hampshire.
The service included an evangelistic invitation to be saved, and many families rededicated their lives to Christ at the end of the service, Dusty's father, the Rev. Bob Boyce, said.
In addition, even people have had their lives improved thanks to Dusty's decision to be an organ donor. One, a boy from Virginia who had been waiting since 2001 for a kidney, will be able to start college this fall.
Others helped were a man in his 60s who needed a heart, a man in his early 50s with liver failure, and a man in his early 40s with kidney failure.
The basketball team at Holly Grove Christian School in Westover, Md., has received hundreds of dollars in donations in Dusty's memory for new uniforms -- including all the proceeds from a Somerset County, Md., firefighters and rescue workers picnic. Dusty was a popular player on the team throughout high school and also played intramural basketball at college last year.
A new niece, born July 19, bears the name Dusty Kate.
Last Thursday Tammy traveled with a friend to Liberty University in Lynchburg, where Dusty recently had completed his freshman year.
The family is establishing a scholarship at the school in Dusty's honor, and for Tammy Boyce, the trip renewed her faith and her strength.
"I went out there for closure. People said it was too soon, but I needed to go," she said.
The Dusty Boyce Memorial Scholarship will help pay tuition for psychology majors -- the major Dusty had chosen -- who have lost a close family member to an automobile accident.
The family plans to sponsor basketball tournaments to raise the scholarship money.
While at Liberty, Tammy Boyce met with its founder, the Rev. Jerry Falwell, and other pastors from the school.
"I wanted to let [Pastor Falwell] know how much Liberty meant to Dusty. The first time he came back home, there was a change in him -- he had matured," she said.
It was not the first Boyce meeting with Falwell. Dusty, always one to stand up for a friend, last year made an appointment with the famous minister to plead for one of his best friends who wanted to attend the school but had not been accepted.
After the meeting, Tammy Boyce said, Falwell "overrode everything and let him in."
Last week Pastor Johnnie Moore, who also conducted Dusty's funeral, told her that Dusty had begun the friend's journey, "but we're going to make sure it continues."
Dusty seemed to have that effect on people. On his MySpace.com page he told the world, "I like to meet strangers and make them my friends."
"He brought me kids to mend like other people bring home stray cats," his mother said.
He was the kind of kid who refused to pocket $100 he found in the grocery store. He turned it in. If the clerk at McDonald's gave him too much change, he circled back around through the drive-through to return it.
During the days Dusty struggled for his life in Peninsula Regional Medical Center in Salisbury, no fewer than 100 people held vigil in the hospital. "Every department in the hospital talked about this child," Tammy Boyce said.
Since he died, 15 people have gotten tattoos in his honor, including his mother, whose ankle now bears a cross with his name.
Tattoos were a favorite of Dusty's, and he had several -- including his little sisters' names, one down each arm, so he could take the girls with him to college.
The day before the accident, Dusty, who was in the habit of text messaging scriptures and inspirational messages to friends, sent this message to Holly Grove basketball coach Jensen Long: "If God brings you to it, God will see you through it."
It is a message that his family and many, many others now have to cling to in the days ahead.
Tammy Boyce has had several people tell her of dreams they have had since Dusty's death.
The son of Bob Boyce's co-worker, who did not know Dusty, told her he had a dream of a boy with dark hair who said to tell Tammy, "I did what I had to do."
A girl told her Dusty quoted a Bible verse in her dream: "For me to live is Christ and to die is gain."
His friend also had a dream in which Dusty told him, "I'm all right. You need to do what's right."
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