Paul Bagge, 45, died July 13, one day after trying to intervene in a dispute over a lost beagle, according to police.
SPRINGFIELD – Paul Bagge's life was marked by excellent air guitar rifts, frequent "I love you's" and a tragic end, according to a crowd of East Springfield mourners who attended his funeral service Saturday.
Paul Brendan BaggeBagge, 45, died July 13, one day after trying to intervene in a dispute over a lost beagle, according to police. Guy Wilson, 52, punched Bagge in the head as Bagge tried to stop him from harassing a woman who came to 168 East St. to retrieve the dog, said investigators, who arrested Wilson. Bagge fell and hit his head; he later died at Baystate Medical Center, according to family members.
"I was outside the emergency room joking around with my brother-in-law, expecting Paul to come walking out. Then my other brother came out crying. I couldn't believe it," Paul Bagge's older brother, Joseph Bagge, of Springfield, said after the funeral at Mary Mother of Hope Church on Saturday morning.
Joseph Bagge, 47, gave an emotional eulogy at the funeral Mass, including singing a verse from one of his brother's favorite Rush songs.
"He loved music, so I was bound and determined to include a few verses for my brother," he said, taking a break from an after-funeral gathering at the Marconi Club on Parallel Street in East Springfield.
Paul Bagge was unmarried and had no children, but evidently had hundreds of devoted neighborhood friends who packed the church along with his several siblings and other family members.
"We're an eclectic herd," friend Douglas Converse, 55, said of the tight-knit nature of the East Springfield crowd. "Paul wasn't a flashy guy. He was an unassuming guy, a nice guy."
Another friend, Anthony Scavotto, said after the funeral that Bagge would frequently appear at local bars wearing concert shirts and playing air guitar on a mop.
"He had a mullet. He was stuck in a time warp," Scavotto said affectionately, before suggesting to the crowd they should share a blackberry brandy shot in Bagge's memory.
Others chimed in that Paul Bagge would always dole out hugs and tell other patrons he loved them before leaving for the evening.
He lived at 2411 Roosevelt St. with two of his brothers, Joseph Bagge said. Oddly, it was the house where his late parents raised their large family and was sold after they died, only to be repurchased a few years ago by brother Martin Bagge.
"I've been having a hard time coming to terms with his death. But people tell me: 'He died doing the right thing.' So what's wrong with that? It's not a bad legacy to have," Joseph Bagge said.