MICHELLE WILLARD, Post Staff Writer
Posted: Tuesday, May 5, 2009 9:44 am

Children and parents from Project Go! are joined Monday afternoon by Murfreesboro Parks and Recreation employees at a memorial service for Kori and Olivia Bryant. The balloons had personal messages attached to them and were released from Oaklands Park.

Children from Murfreesboro Parks and Recreation Department’s Project Go! held a memorial service Monday afternoon for their teacher Kori Bryant and her daughter Olivia.

The children gathered in the pavilion at Oakland Park next to Oaklands Historic House Museum. They wrote notes to both Bryant and Olivia that near attached to balloons and released to the heavens.

“Even when she didn’t have to do this (Project Go!) anymore she did,” MPRD spokeswoman Jeni Brinkman said. “She really loved these kids.”

And the kids loved her.

The memorial service was held to help the children deal with Bryant’s and Olivia’s sudden death when the EF-4 Good Friday Tornado that torn a 23.5-mile path through Murfreesboro last month destroyed their home. They were found in the debris from their Sulphur Springs and Haynes Drive home.

Her husband, John, suffered critical injuries, but is recovering physically and back to work, his mother Connie said.

Bryant worked at Murfreesboro Parks and Rec an art teacher and helped with summer camps and theater programs. She started as a cultural arts assistant in 2002.

Michelle Willard can be contacted at 615-869-0816 or mwillard@murfreesboropost.com.