The sounds of a bugler playing taps and a three-shot volley from military riflemen echoed in a vacant lot at the corner of Ninth and Arkansas streets Wednesday as family, friends and neighbors said goodbye to an old soldier.

Soldiers from Fort Leavenworth conducted the military honors ceremony for retired Army Lt. Col. Willard Blair Esplin, who died Jan. 4.

Esplin was cremated and, as he had requested, there had been no formal memorial service. Instead, there was Wednesday’s send-off, which was attended by more than a dozen people.

“It was a proper tribute to a soldier,” said Jim Joyce, Esplin’s son-in-law.

Esplin, 74, spent 22 years in the Army. He served in Vietnam before his retirement in 1974. In May 2005, he moved to Lawrence and planned to move to the downtown Hobbs-Taylor Lofts in the 700 block of New Hampshire Street. Until then he lived in a studio apartment above the Joyces’ garage. He suffered a stroke Nov. 4.

Soldiers from Fort Leavenworth line up for a gun salute in a Lawrence neighborhood during a memorial for Army veteran Willard Blair Esplin, who spent decades in the Army and died last month.

His daughter, Holli Joyce, decided to hold the military tribute in the Lawrence neighborhood after deciding security requirements made an event at Fort Leavenworth “too labor intensive.”

“The Army was being very gracious and offered to come over and do this at our house,” she said.

It was the first time Staff Sgt. Sam Dell had led members of the 526th Military Police Co. in conducting the ceremony in a residential neighborhood.

“We had no problem doing it,” Dell said. “He (Esplin) was very deserving of it.”

The event also received approval from Lawrence police, Holli Joyce said.

At the end of the ceremony, an American flag was presented to Joyce. Neighborhood children and her two sons released 10 red balloons.

Holli Joyce wipes away a tear during a memorial service for her father, Willard Blair Esplin, who spent his career in the U.S. Army before retiring to Lawrence. The service was held at the corner of Ninth and Arkansas streets and included a 21-gun salute from the soldiers of the 526 MP company out of Fort Leavenworth.

“I really wanted my boys to be a part of this,” Joyce said, referring to her children, Alek, an eighth-grader, and Kale, a sixth-grader. Her father had returned to Lawrence to spend more time with his grandchildren, she said.

The ceremony provided some additional backdrop for her sons as they learned more about their grandfather’s military career. He was stationed in several foreign countries and earned several medals, including three Bronze Stars.

“It was a gorgeous day; couldn’t have asked for a better day,” Holli Joyce said after the ceremony. “I think Dad would have been proud.”

• Obituary: Willard Blair Esplin (01-06-06)