His tearful, tiny Cub Scout buddies honored him the best way they knew how yesterday — saluting and holding up American flags as his ashes were carried out of church in a small green urn.
Little Benjamin Wheeler’s shattered musician parents memorialized him by playing a recording of an acoustic lullaby “Stars in the Sky’’ — written by his father and recorded by his mother — in the grief-wracked Trinity Episcopal Church in Newtown, Conn.
Mourners of Benjamin broke down.
“It’s really hard, because I don’t really know why he had to die. It’s very sad to see all this happen,” said Cub Scout Pablo Carmona, a 6-year-old Manhattan native. “He seemed like a very good boy.”
Benjamin, one of at least five victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre laid to rest yesterday, was recalled as a lover of lighthouses, horses and New York City, where he was especially fond of riding the No. 7 train in Sunnyside, Queens.
A blown-up picture of the smiling boy, with a lighthouse in the background, hung on a stand in front of the church.
Meanwhile, at St. Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church across town, a single bell tolled at a service to remember Catherine Hubbard, a beaming, red-haired 6-year-old known for her passion for animals.
In Danbury, friends and family wept at First Congregational Church at the memorial service for Lauren Rousseau, 30, who had become a permanent substitute teacher at the school only in October, after a teacher had gone out on maternity leave.
“She was my adventure buddy, my partner in crime,” said a tearful Tony Lusiardi, Rousseau’s boyfriend., who called her “Busy Bee.”
“Most of all I, will miss your laughter,” he added, weeping.
At a funeral for fallen teacher Anne Marie Murphy in Katonah in Westchester County, Timothy Cardinal Dolan compared Murphy to Jesus, praising her sacrifice in dying while shielding a group of students.
“Like Jesus, Annie laid down her life for her friends,” Dolan told the packed congregation at St. Mary of the Assumption Church.
“Like Jesus, Annie’s life and death brings light, truth, goodness and love to a world often shrouded in darkness, evil, selfishness and death.”
Principal Dawn Hochsprung also was believed to have been buried yesterday. Her family shunned all media inquiries.
In addition, 6-year-old Allison Wyatt was remembered at a funeral in Southbury, Conn., where mourners covered the community with green balloons — her favorite.
The Rev. Walter Pitman, the funeral’s only speaker, described the little girl as a budding artist who covered her family’s home in paintings and drawings,
“At some point over the last six years, Allie Wyatt got in your way, and you are better for it,” he told the crowd at Sacred Heart Church.
Wakes were also held for 6-year-olds Jesse Lewis, Olivia Engel and Grace McDonnell, as well as behavioral therapist Rachel Marie Davino and school psychologist Mary Sherlach.