A crowd watches as Bart Underwood, right, and Ben Underwood unveil a sign at a ceremony Saturday renaming a bridge on U.S. Hwy. 27 north of Thrasher Pike in honor of Lonnie Allen Floyd, who was killed in the Vietnam War.

A lowering sky was the proper backdrop Saturday for a ceremony honoring a local soldier who died nearly 50 years ago.

Friends and family gathered to unveil a sign dedicating the span on U.S. Highway 27 over North Chickamauga Creek as the Spc. 4 Lonnie A. Floyd Memorial Bridge.

Lonnie Floyd was 19 when he was killed in Vietnam on Jan. 14, 1967, while serving with Company C, 4th Battalion, 503rd Infantry, 173rd Airborne Brigade.

His brother, state Rep. Richard Floyd, said he has always worked with fellow lawmakers to remind people of how much local veterans have sacrificed.

"I wanted to do something like this to honor my brother," Rep. Floyd said. "But also to remind everybody every time they cross this bridge that somebody died for this country.

"Freedom's not free, it's not cheap, and everything we have in America, somebody died to preserve it for us, and that's what this is all about."

See complete story in Sunday's Times Free Press.