For the 16th consecutive year, the State of Tennessee is honoring victims of homicide with a special memorial service. Families and friends of homicide victims joined 10 agencies and two victim advocacy groups for this year’s Tennessee Season to Remember.

Twelve-time Grammy winner CeCe Winans provided the music for this year’s event. Karen Bobo, the mother of West Tennessee murder victim Holly Bobo, was the keynote speaker.

During the ceremony, families from across Tennessee placed ornaments on memory wreaths in honor of their loved ones. The memory wreaths are being displayed at the top of the grand stairway just outside the House Chambers in the Tennessee State Capitol through December 21.

Former Senator Charlotte Burks and former Tennessee First Lady Andrea Conte placed the first ornaments on the wreaths. Burks’ husband, Senator Tommy Burks, was murdered in 1998. Conte founded the “Tennessee Season to Remember” as a statewide event in 2003.

Representatives from the Tennessee Association of Chiefs of Police, the Tennessee Sheriffs’ Association, Mothers Against Drunk Driving and others also placed ornaments on the wreaths in honor of the victims and the survivors they assist throughout the year.

The Tennessee Board of Parole, Tennessee Department of Correction, Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security, Tennessee Department of Finance and Administration’s Office of Criminal Justice Programs, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, Tennessee Secretary of State’s Office, Tennessee Department of Treasury, the Office of the Tennessee Attorney General & Reporter, Tennessee District Attorneys General Conference, Tennessee Rehabilitative Initiative in Correction (TRICOR), and victims’ advocacy groups You Have the Power and Tennessee Voices for Victims organized this year’s event.