Remembering Thomas Stafford, Oklahoma Astronaut

For one Weatherford man, he always wanted to fly higher and faster. Astronaut General Thomas Stafford did just that, spending 507 hours in space. Today, family and friends gathered to remember the remarkable man.

"The man we came to honor today inspired me to dream beyond what was possible and beyond what the qualifications said I could do," said Charles Seligman III, USAF Chaplin.

Dozens of astronauts and two of the four living moonwalkers gathered to pay respects to General Thomas Stafford.

NASA's Administrator Senator Bill Nelson said even at 93, Stafford had his mind in the sky. "I'll tell you I received a weekly phone call telling me what I should be doing," said Senator Bill Nelson, NASA Administrator.

Stafford commanded the Joint US-Soviet mission that started an era of cooperation in space. Astronaut Charles Duke says the country is safer because of Stafford. "I couldn't imagine an Okie speaking Russian… with an accent… but he mastered it," said Charles Duke, the 10th man to walk on the moon.

Stafford visited space four times, flew miles away from the moon, and helped find the spot where Apolo 11 would land.

Now in Weatherford, a museum marks Stafford's historic strikes during his career.  

"Heads of state, kings' queens, all of these people he met, none of them meant more than what his hometown gave him," said Max Ary, a longtime friend and the Director of the Stafford Museum.

 Ary says an entire row at the church was filled with Stafford's high school friends who watched an Oklahoma take his dreams to space.

Staford was laid to rest across the street from an elementary school named after him, and family and friends say this is his most significant honor.