AMBOY — When a veteran dies, the Amboy American Legion will perform a graveside military honors services. The Legion performs about 30 of these graveside services each year.

The Amboy American Legion performed this honors service for Clifford Becker, Sr., in January 2011. Little did they know that six years later they would be asked to perform the graveside service for a movie.

Fourteen men, member of the Amboy American Legion and a trumpeter, boarded a rental van for Hillside on Tuesday morning to reenact the graveside honor services for the movie What They Had. The movie is written and being directed by Elizabeth Chomko, one of the granddaughters of Becker.

Larry Leffelman, commander of the Amboy America Legion, said that they had been working out the details for the filming of the ceremony for the past two months. Leffelman said that Chomko had attended her grandfather’s funeral and was moved by the military honors ceremony. So much that, according to Leffelman, she decided to have the Amboy American Legion in the movie to recreate the burial ceremony.

Leffelman said of the filming, that they had a casket all laid out like a real burial. The members of the American Legion performed the graveside ceremony many times. Leffelman said that they had two cameras on a rail to help capture the ceremony. He added that filming had to stop one time because he got in the way.

The American Legion crew were returned to Amboy before 5 p.m. on Tuesday. Each member that participated was paid for the day, and Leffelman said, they were told the Amboy Post would receive a sizeable donation as well.

According to the Internet Movie Database, What They Had is about a woman who must fly back to her hometown when her Alzheimer's-stricken mother, wanders into a blizzard. The return home forces her to confront her past.

The movie stars Hillary Swank, Blythe Danner, Michael Shannon and Taissa Farmiga. No release date was listed on the Internet Movie Database.

Becker was born in Sublette on Jan. 5, 1930, the son of Justin and Gertrude (Vincent) Becker and was raised in Maytown on his family farm with his two brothers and two sisters. He attended Amboy High School and Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa. While serving in the Air Force in Cheyenne, Wyo., he returned to Amboy to marry his sweetheart, Patricia O'Rourke and they shared their lives for over 58 years. Becker died Dec. 30, 2010, in Overland Park, Kans. Becker had a long career with IBM Corporation and Gagliardo Realty for many years before retiring and traveling. The family lived in Oak Park and had been active members of St. Giles Parish for more than 50 years.