GLOSTER, Miss. (AP) — Hundreds of family, friends and military personnel turned out Saturday for the funeral of Sgt. Taurean T. Harris to remember a man who was unfailing positive throughout his life.

Some who attended his funeral at the Homochitto Baptist Association wore T-shirts that showed a smiling Harris. That smile was remembered often during the service.

The Rev. Londie Weatherspoon, of West Jerusalem Baptist Church, told mourners that he baptized a smiling Harris.

“I had to tell him to shut his mouth or I’d drown him,” said Weatherspoon, drawing laughter from the otherwise somber crowd.

And Brig. Gen. Jeffery Foley of Fort Gordon, Ga., where Harris was based before being shipped to Afghanistan, said he thought he could tell that Harris was holding back a smile while posing for a military portrait displayed by his casket.

“He was able to bring joy to whatever we would do, no matter the task,” said Foley, echoing the comments of those who served with Harris.

No one at the service was sure where Harris picked up his smile. But he carried it with him through childhood in Liberty, his time at Amite County High School, where he served as Junior ROTC squad leader, and into his career with the Army.

“Taurean was such a fun-loving, kind, honorable person. And it’s sad to lose someone that outstanding,” former neighbor and classmate Lashonya “Shon” Harris told the Enterprise-Journal of McComb after the service.

Harris was killed Aug. 2 in Kala Gush, Afghanistan. The military initially reported that he was killed by a roadside bomb. But officials recently told his family he was killed during a shootout after his unit was ambushed. He was killed while returning gunfire.

Harris shipped out with the 202nd Military Intelligence Battalion, 513th Military Intelligence Brigade in December and was scheduled to return home next March.

Harris is at least the 56th military member with close ties to Mississippi to die in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, and the second from Afghanistan.

Foley presented Harris’ mother, Yolanda Wagner, with the Bronze Star and Purple Heart medals awarded to the soldier.

“He is exactly the type of soldier that makes me so proud to wear this uniform,” Foley said.