Monday, June 20, 2005 | 11:05 a.m.
Sunday evening started like any other that Stan Lapinski's friends might have spent in his company.
Friends talked over drinks in the dim Champagnes Cafe. They smoked cigarettes and settled into booths. The jukebox played.
When the music stopped, a man holding a guitar at the front of the bar raised a glass.
"Cheers, here's to Stan. Hold them up high," he said.
Army Cpl. Stanley Lapinski, a Las Vegas resident, died June 11 in Iraq.
Lapinski, 35, was riding in a military vehicle when a nearby explosive detonated along the streets of Baghdad.
Friends gathered at one of Lapinski's favorite bars to remember him Sunday as an extraordinary friend, music lover, and an uncommon soldier.
Brent Engle met Lapinski at the record store that Engle used to own. He told of having eye surgery in San Francisco. Recovering there and feeling despondent, Engle called Lapinski in Las Vegas.
"Boom, Stan was there the next day. There's not many people that would do that," Engle said.
Joanna Kimberlain said Lapinski was one of the most intelligent people she has ever known, a person who could talk about anything.
She said he was always around for a good conversation and was at her wedding, in the background of nearly every photo.
"It's like all the best memories, Stan's in them," she said.
Lapinski's friends said they were surprised when he joined the military, but they supported him and his fellow soldiers even if they did not support the war itself.
It is a war that cost the lives of three valley servicemen last week.
Cpl. Jesse Jaime, 22, of Henderson, died along with three other Marines in an explosion Wednesday.
Spc. Anthony Cometa, 21, also of Henderson, also died Wednesday in a separate rollover accident. Cometa is the first member of the Nevada Army National Guard to die in the war.
Rebecca Zisch, who used to date Lapinski, said she thought he joined the military partially in response to Sept. 11 and partially in hope to find his place.
"He never really felt fulfilled or felt like he was using the combination of gifts that he was given in life," she said.
Lapinski had a degree in psychology and was making plans for graduate school. He had once applied to be a police officer. And he used to host a radio show on the KUNV 91.5-FM "Rock Avenue" program as "Stan the Man."
Zisch said she and Lapinski found each other and friends in the bars and record stores of Las Vegas.
Champagnes, she said, was an appropriate place for a memorial. Lapinski's friends offered toasts like prayers and played what could otherwise be hymns on amplified guitars.
"This is where Stan would have wanted to be right now," Zisch said.
Former Lt. Gov. Lonnie Hammargren brought the Mid-East Mobile Memorial Wall to the bar and unveiled a panel bearing Lapinski's name. Democratic Congresswoman Shelley Berkley also visited.
Sitting inside, at the end of the bar, Eleanor Dachtler came out of respect and to offer support. Dachtler's son, Marine Lance Cpl. Nicholas Anderson, 19, died six months ago in Iraq.
Dachtler said she took off work and tries to attend every local military memorial service.
"This week will be hard," she said. "It's too much, this week."
Zisch is flying Tuesday to Naples, Fla., where Lapinski's family lives and where his funeral will be Wednesday. He will later be buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
In Lapinski's memory, Zisch sang a song Sunday, one she said was their favorite.
" 'No matter where you go I will always see your face,' " she sang, her eyes closed as she held the microphone.
She finished the song with a gesture repeated throughout the evening.
"We love you, Stan," she said, raising a glass. "Everybody, drinks high."
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