Troy Myung Cleaveland. Troy was taken from us on May 6th, 1997 in a car accident in Louisiana.
We chose Troy from a small group of boys at an orphanage in
Korea. Starting out life as Kim Dong Myung, we changed his name to 
Troy and kept his Korean middle name. He was an outgoing
boy and found his niche in the family right off. The language barrier seemed
to be nothing to him and he quickly learned to speak English. His older sister
figured that she'd made a poor choice and decided that she wasn't sure that
she wanted a little brother anymore, even though they became quite close as
they matured! Troy and his younger sister were const
ant companions
and playmates for years. Troy's goal in life for years was to tease and antagonize
his younger sister and her friends.
As a young child, Troy wasn't interested in his Korean roots.
We tried to encourage him in that direction, but didn't push. He was happy,
bright and outgoing. Entering his teenage years, he became more interested in
his roots and at the time of his death, he had been hoping for orders f
or Korea so that he might explore the country of his birth and
possibly search out his birth parents. He'd even made arrangements with us to
keep most of his possessions and his car with us while he was gone. Troy was
fiercely proud of his Korean heritage. He collected friends wherever he went
and had friends of many nationalities. We know that all of those friends will
miss him as much as we do. We have tried to contact those we could find an address
to, but many of the letters have been returned for lack of better addresses.
We do have one wonderful letter from a sweet girl that gives us a view of Troy
that we didn't see much, though some of us knew he had it deep inside. We have
heard from a young man in Louisana that because Troy wasn't there to be his
best man at his wedding in June, there wasn't a best man.
Troy entered the Army in October of 1994. At the time of his
death, he was stationed at Fort Polk, Louisiana. He drove heavy equipment and
seemed to enjoy his job and from what we have heard did quite well at it.
Troy was buried in the family plot at Moab, Utah. A wonderful
group of soldiers from Fort Carson, Colorado, came over to lay Troy to rest
with honors. Moab was one of Troy's favorite spots and he had hoped to attend
the Bi-annual Cleaveland reunion
the weekend of June 13 and 14th., 1997
We love you Troy, and miss you very much....
Dad, Mom, Tami, John, Cody, Dustin, and Tori
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Pictures taken May 8, 2004
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