HUNDREDS of mourners turned out yesterday to pay their last respects to the five members of the same family killed in a horrific crash on the A18.
St John the Evangelist Church in Birtley, near Gateshead, was full and hundreds more people had to stand outside listening to the service for the Cockburn family being relayed on a loudspeaker.
Three generations of the family, from Ouston, near Chester le Street, County Durham, died on Friday, April 12 when their car was in a head-on collision with a lorry on Barton Street as they were heading to a dance competition in Skegness.
The crash took the lives of dad David Cockburn, 48, a care home manager, his wife Angela, 49, who ran a beauty salon, and daughters Bethany, 18, and hairdresser Carley Ann, 21, both keen dancers. Bethany's 23-month-old daughter Lacie Stephenson was also killed.
Yesterday's service was conducted by Reverend Gareth Lloyd, and Mr Cockburn's cousin, Reverend Karen Fenwick, Minister at Lowson Memorial Church, Forfar, Scotland.
The coffins were carried into the church to the sound of Only Just Begun, by the Carpenters, the music Mr and Mrs Cockburn had at their wedding.
Music at the service included hymns Guide Me, O, Thou Great Redeemer and Abide With Me, as well as favourite songs of the family, Aerosmith's I Don't Want To Miss A Thing, for Carley and I'll See You Again by Westlife for Bethany. The two vicars spoke of how the family loved, and were devoted to, each other, and how they had many friends.
Rev Lloyd told the mourners that the size of the turn-out was a tribute to the family.
The gathering was told that Mr and Mrs Cockburn's son Dean remembered that his parents "always had time for their children even though they both worked.
"They always had time to support Dean's football and the girls' dancing."
Dean described Bethany as "very straight, called a spade a spade and had a little stubborn streak."
He said his sister Carley was "very strong minded and always the life and soul of any party. But even though she was gentle, she could be fiery if anyone upset her."
The funeral also heard that Garry Stephenson, the father of Lacie, wanted to spend the rest of his life with Bethany and their daughter and he said of Lacie that "no words can ever express what you brought into all our lives , and the love and joy that surrounded you."
Rev Fenwick said Mr and Mrs Cockburn "were simply devoted to their children – their whole world revolved around them – and they always welcomed their friends, too, it was like party house."
The coffins left the church for Gateshead's Saltwell Crematorium to Dancing Queen by Abba.
