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Family Of Crash Victim Dealing With Shock

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By HOWARD ALTMAN

haltman@tampatrib.com

Published: February 14, 2009

Clay Yarber was just getting back to playing the guitar the way he was used to.

The 62-year-old decorated Vietnam War veteran, who moved from Pinellas County out to Los Angeles about a year ago to help his son Chris embark on a music career, lost a finger in a fall down a flight of stairs.

"We were planning on playing music together," said Chris Yarber, 22, a keyboardist, drummer, bassist and singer, speaking by phone from the takeout window of an Applebee's restaurant in Los Angeles.

"The first time he touched a guitar since that accident was this week, He was an amazing guitarist and just getting back to playing the way he could. He was adapting."

But plans for a father-son musical collaboration were not meant to be.

Thursday, Chris Yarber dropped his father off at Los Angeles International Airport.

"He was terrified of flying," Yarber said. "Ever since he was shot down in a helicopter in Vietnam."

His father flew once, about 20 years ago, the son recalled. Then not again, until Thursday.

Clay Yarber took a flight from LA to Newark, where he boarded Continental Connection Flight 3407, bound for Buffalo, where he was going to visit a friend.

Yarber and the other 48 souls on board never made it. The plane crashed into a house and exploded.

Chris Yarber said his father was frustrated with him as they drove to the airport.

"We were running late," he said.

Still, father hugged son, son hugged father. They exchanged "I love yous."

And that was the last he will ever see of his dad.

"This is horrible,"' he said.

His mom, Shari Ingram, who was one of Clay's five wives, had previously scheduled a trip out west.

The timing couldn't have been better for her son, she said.

"Chris and I are going to see a movie tonight, 'Confessions of a Shopaholic,'" Ingram said. "He really needs to get his mind off of things for a little bit. We need to do something like this."

Her ex, she said, had a heart of gold and was loved from coast to coast.

Though his many friends and family members will likely want to do something to remember him, it is too soon to plan, Ingram said.

"I haven't thought that far," she said. "We are trying to take each day as we go."

Adding to the difficulty is the nature of the accident.

"There are no remains," she said.

Nicole L. Yarber, the daughter of Michele Keratsis, another of Clay Yarber's ex-wives, agreed that it is too soon to plan a memorial.

Like Shari Ingram and the family of Marvin Dean Renslow - the 47-year-old pilot of Flight 3407 who lived with his wife and children in Lutz - they are waiting for the crash investigation to wrap up.

Lisa Burner, the wife of pastor Alan Burner, who read a heartfelt statement Friday on behalf of Renslow at the First Baptist Church of Lutz, said memorial plans may be premature, but it is not too soon to help out the family.

Donations are being accepted through the Suncoast Schools Federal Credit Union, for the college education of Renslow's children, she said.

Though Chris Yarber is devastated, he said he is also inspired.

"I am sure I will write some music from this," he said.

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