“There wasn’t anything he would not do for his children.” Raynard Hyde’s son Aaron Hyde sings Amazing Grace during the memorial for Raynard Hyde at the Cathedral of Faith church in San Jose on Saturday, August 18, 2018. “Ray was a great father, teacher and example to his children,” his eulogy said. A few years later they became parents, first to Aaron, then to Alexandria and Audrey. “In that moment, Hyde said to God, ‘If my song brings tears to her eyes, I will ask her out,'” the eulogy said. He thought about impressing Bina Hyde with his singing. He was serving as a guest minister at Iglesia Emmanuel in Milpitas when he met his future wife. After graduating from Seaside High School in 1981, he moved to San Jose to continue his education, which included studies that allowed him to also serve as a minister. They preferred to think about the father, brother, friend and fellow believer who was “a beautiful spirit” with a big, friendly personality.Īccording to the eulogy read at his service, Hyde was born in Alabama but grew up in Monterey County, where his army veteran father was stationed at Ford Ord. Prosecutors have declined to comment on that claim McCartney is next due in court on September 25 to enter a plea, according to Deputy District Attorney Alaleh Kianerci.Īt the Cathedral of Faith Saturday, no one wanted to focus on what some had earlier called the “terrible” circumstances of Hyde’s death. Police said McCartney and Hyde had been drinking in the park the night before after finishing their shifts, with McCartney telling police that an altercation broke out after Hyde made sexual advances. Raynard Hyde’s mother Marie Hyde, left, and Raynard’s wife Bina Hyde react during the memorial for Raynard Hyde at the Cathedral of Faith church in San Jose on Saturday, August 18, 2018. Both Hyde and McCartney, of Sunnyvale, worked at a Safeway a block away. “That’s what God wants, that from that intimacy with him there is an outflow to the congregation, to the community, to the family,” he said.įoreman’s mention of “tragic death” was the only reference to what happened on July 21, when Hyde’s body was found early that morning near the park’s duck pond. With his singing, Hyde explained it was never just about the “song,” but about building “relationships.”
“He wanted to tell everyone that he’s OK, and he can hardy wait for you to get there.” Short also said Hyde could live on in people’s memories.Ĭertainly, Hyde was very much a presence in the videos that played on a big screen and showed the him performing at a recent Father’s Day celebration with his son Aaron, or sitting before the camera, explaining how he never considered himself to be “a singer” but a “minister.”
Even through a tragic death, death does not have the last word, Jesus does,” said Pastor Ken Foreman.Īnother pastor, Dewey Short, opened his message to the mourners by taking a phone call on his cell phone.
“Because of Jesus, death does not have the last word. But as much as she and others expressed profound grief or anger that someone would want to take his life, one message of the service was that he’s not really gone. My life will never be the same,” said Bina Hyde, Hyde’s wife of 21 years and the mother of their son, 19, and daughters, 17 and 15. Hundreds of those congregants, plus many others who knew the 54-year-old Safeway butcher as a South Bay neighbor or co-worker, came together to sing, get up off their feet once more and celebrate his life, which was cut short when he was found slain in Santa Clara’s Central Park on July 21. Gage Taren McCartney, a 25-year-old co-worker at Safeway, where Hyde was a butcher, has been arrested and charged in his strangling, which has left family and friends overcome with shock and sadness. Raynard Hyde’s wife Bina Hyde, right, gets a hug from Beth Singh, at the memorial for Raynard Hyde at the Cathedral of Faith church in San Jose on Saturday, August 18, 2018. For three decades, Raynard Hyde’s powerful baritone often filled the large sanctuary of San Jose’s Cathedral of Faith on Sundays or for holidays, soaring with a gospel verse and rousing other congregants to get up off their feet to clap, sway, sing along and join in his lifelong love for community, family and God.