ST. LOUIS COUNTY — Friends and family gathered Sunday night to say goodbye to a south St. Louis County couple. Friends tell 5 On Your Side that Bill Asher and Rose Hamann were driven by service to others.
They spent much of their free time raising money for a veteran's nonprofit they helped create.
Outside of that, their language of love was music.
That's fitting because, by all accounts, Rose and Bill were partial to a good love song.
"What brought them together was music," Rhonda Forbes, a close friend, said.
Love and sadness made up the melody of the bar in South County, where loved ones gathered.
"They were very very dedicated to our veterans group. Very," Forbes said.
Many in attendance knew the couple through the Sgt. Ron Bozikis Memorial Organization where Rose was the hard-nosed treasurer.
"She would keep us in line and hold nothing back. She would tell us everything," Forbes joked.
As for Bill's role, he was considered the 'Director of Entertainment.'
If the duo had their own love song, the first verse started in a room pretty similar to the one for the gathering Sunday.
Bill was a D.J. Rose was a dancer. It was all harmony from there.
"They were teenagers in love, they had nothing but fun," Forbes said.
Last week was their first vacation in the four years of their courtship.
"The day they were leaving, Rosie called the house and she said, you should see Bill he’s in the kitchen doing a happy dance singing 'We’re going on vacation,'" said Russ McKay, another family friend.
The original plan was to go to Nashville for the trip.
"Plans changed. Rosie had some health problems so they had to postpone," Forbes said.
So they chose Branson instead.
They were supposed to come back on Thursday but were having so much fun, they extended the trip one more day.
"They went on the Branson Belle, she said oh the food was so good. She wanted to go back the next day which was Thursday and they decided to take the duck ride," McKay said.
They were one of the 17 that didn't survive.
"You can’t blame anybody, you can’t blame the weather. It was just fate. It was just terrible, terrible turn of events that caused this tragedy," he said.
Bill and Rose's final verse is still being composed by family and friends that loved them the most.
"We don’t really know where we’re going to go but we are going to go on because that’s what they would have wanted," Forbes said.
As far as Rhonda and Russ are concerned, it's a tune that will play on for a long time.
"They’re in our hearts forever. We will never ever forget them," she said.
Bill Asher's funeral will be held Friday morning at Kutis South County Chapel. The service begins at 10.
Rose has donated her body to science.
