On Wings of Love ceremony remembers lives lost to homicide in Montgomery County

Victims of Homicide were honored by family and friends at the 25th Annual On Wings of Love ceremony at First Baptist Church.

CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – The District Attorney General’s Office in Clarksville hosted the 25th annual On Wings of Love ceremony Tuesday. More than 300 people, including the families and friends of homicide victims, attended the event at First Baptist Church downtown.

The ceremony is held to remember and honor those who have lost their lives to violence or homicide. Victim’s families and friends placed a handmade ornament on one of the two Christmas trees inside the fellowship hall.

Family members and friends of homicide victims honor their memory by placing handmade ornaments on a Christmas tree for the On Wings of Love ceremony at First Baptist Church, on Dec. 6, 2022. (Lee Erwin)

District Attorney General Robert Nash places an ornament on a Christmas tree to honor the memory of a victim of homicide for the On Wings of Love ceremony at First Baptist Church, on Dec. 6, 2022. (Lee Erwin)

Handmade ornaments placed on a Christmas tree by family and friends of homicide victims to honor their memory for the On Wings of Love ceremony at First Baptist Church, on Dec. 6, 2022. (Lee Erwin)

District Attorney General Robert Nash speaking at the On Wings of Love ceremony at First Baptist Church to honor the memory of homicide victims, on Dec. 6, 2022. (Lee Erwin)

Demone Chestnut speaking at the On Wings of Love ceremony at First Baptist Church to honor the memory of homicide victims, on Dec. 6, 2022. (Lee Erwin)

Guests at the On Wings of Love ceremony at First Baptist Church to honor the memory of homicide victims, on Dec. 6, 2022. (Lee Erwin)

Clarksville Police Chief David Crockarell speaking at the On Wings of Love ceremony at First Baptist Church to honor the memory of homicide victims, on Dec. 6, 2022. (Lee Erwin)

District Attorney General Robert Nash said his office was honored and privileged to be able to offer the On Wings of Love program.

“We look at it as a celebration of the lives lost, not just as victims, but as sons and daughters, and husbands and wives, and brothers and sisters. We get to know these families intimately, and we get to know a lot about their lost loved one through the course of preparing a case. We become somewhat like family,” Nash said.

The mother of one of the victims, Jeannie Winchester, said she was at the ceremony to hang an ornament for her daughter, Jacqueline Beard, who was murdered at age 9 in 1996.

Winchester said she also hung ornaments for her brother, Lonnie Nelson, and other victims of homicide that she knew to help keep their memory alive.