One of the last things Dianne Orr remembers telling 1st Lt. Leevi Khole Barnard of Ararat, Va., before he was deployed to Iraq was to be safe.

“But that was not a part of the plan,” she told a crowd of more than 30 on Monday who came to Becky’s Glassworks on Andy Griffith Parkway to honor the fallen soldier.

Barnard, 28, was killed Thursday in a roadside bombing in southern Baghdad.

He is the son of Pamela Jane Barnard Payne of Patrick County, Va., and the grandson of Thomas L. and Daisy Barnard of Ararat. Barnard’s grandmother, Becky Gordon, owns Becky’s Glassworks where the remembrance was held.

“It seemed fitting to have the remembrance on Memorial Day since that’s what the day is intended for,” said Orr, the store manager who has known Barnard for nine years. “We just wanted to do something for him.”

The event was originally planned for outside, but was quickly moved indoors when heavy rainfall ensued shortly before the 3 p.m. event.

Orr told those attending, who crowded into the shop, that Barnard will be remembered as a good person with a bright personality.

“He knew how to make you laugh, and if he didn’t make you laugh, he knew how to make you smile,” she said tearfully.

Orr and her husband, Gary Orr, worked alongside Barnard in the shop on and off for several years.

Orr said he remembered Barnard as someone people could count on.

“He was a great leader, he could really do anything,” he said.

Barnard joined the North Carolina Army National Guard in August 2004 as a Multiple Launch Rocket System Crew member. He graduated as a Distinguished Military graduate with a GPA of 99 percent from his Advanced Individual Training Class at Fort Sill, Okla., and took his first assignment at B Battery, 5th Battalion 113th Field Artillery Regiment. He later transferred to Detachment 1, A Battery 113th Field Artillery Regiment 30th Heavy Brigade Combat Team.

A 1998 graduate of Patrick County High School, Barnard earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and then received his commission as an officer in the Field Artillery through the Reserve Officers’ Training Corp (ROTC) at the university. After serving in A Battery 1st Battalion 113th Field Artillery Regiment, he transferred to the Headquarters and Headquarters Company 252nd Combined Arms Battalion in Fayetteville of the 30th HBCT where he was assigned at the time of his deployment. This was his first deployment.

Dillard Simmons, who is a veteran and worked with Barnard, said he will be truly missed.

“He really was a good person,” he said.

Contact Erin C. Perkins at eperkins@mtairynews.com or 719-1952.