REMEMBERING CHRISTOPHER LEGG: Adventurous Nine-Year-Old Loved Sports by Christiaan Patterson
“You’re always missing somebody,” Danni Legg said. “You look back into the backseat of your car and you’re doing a head count as a mother and you’re like, ‘I have two. I’m missing one.’ Then you do a quick think and tell yourself: He isn’t at a friend’s house. He’s with God.” May 20 claimed the lives of 25 residents of Moore, including seven students at Plaza Towers Elementary. When Danni Legg made her way from Southmoore High School to the site, she stood in disbelief at what remained of her son’s elementary school. “If the homes weren’t standing, and people were dying, I had no idea what was going to be at the school. It went from major damage to total devastation as I got closer. Houses were flat, just sticks. I yelled out at a teacher I thought was standing on a hill. Come to find it was what was left of the first-grade classrooms,” Legg said. When she turned and saw her husband standing with their daughter, she thought everything would be okay. As time passed, one son was found and reunited with the family. But as time continued to slowly tick by, there was no word on their other son. In the upcoming hours, it would be discovered that Mrs. Daniels’s student Christopher Legg had passed away.
young man, Christopher excelled in sports. He couldn’t get enough of basketball and baseball—but mostly football. As part of a little league since the age of four, he was nicknamed “Monkey” for his ability to reach out with his long limbs and take opposing players out. He was given the center position after his sportsmanship went beyond the level of exemplary. “When he was four or five in little league, he never came back to the huddles,” she said, “because he was always picking up his friends off the ground that he just knocked down. He would say, ‘They are all my friends, Mom.’” During the school year, the family worked with him on his schoolwork. Library trips were part of the everyday routine to make sure homework was complete and understood. This past spring, Christopher made sure to accomplish a goal of reading, despite the challenge it presented. “It was a struggle, but he gained all his AR points and received a trophy for it. He didn’t like to read so much as do other things,” said Ross Legg, Christopher’s father.
Nine days later, the funeral was held at First Baptist Church in Moore where over 1500 people gathered to pay their respects.
From the moment he opened his eyes until he closed them, Christopher always showed kindness and generosity to those around him. To him, there were no strangers, but friends, and he hugged everyone with loving arms. Even in the last moments of life, Christopher showed courageous strength by comforting a scared friend in the hallway as their world was turned upside down.
“The neatest thing I can remember about the service were all the football teams showing up in their gear, wearing their team jerseys in support of him,” said Legg.
“He did such a remarkable thing, walking down the hall and sitting next to a friend that day,” Legg said. “It cost him his life, but he was everything we taught
Football was a way of life for Christopher. This adventurous, caring, and loving nine-year-old never left anyone behind, on or off the field. As a taller-than-average 24 | MOORE MONTHLY | NOVEMBER 2013
him to be: loving, caring, and being a best friend to everyone.”