this version (which I use on CentOS as /etc/init.d/statsd) mimics more closely the "normal" sysV service control script behavior.

statsd_init.sh

#!/bin/sh
 
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides:          statsd
# Required-Start:    $local_fs $remote_fs $network $syslog
# Required-Stop:     $local_fs $remote_fs $network $syslog
# Default-Start:     2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop:      0 1 6
# Short-Description: control statsd
# Description:       start/stop/restart statsd using nodejs forever
### END INIT INFO

# Source function library.
. /etc/rc.d/init.d/functions

exec="/opt/statsd/stats.js"
exec_ext=".js"
pidfile="/var/run/statsd.pid"

CONFIG="/opt/statsd/local.js"
LOG_DIR="/var/log/statsd"

node="/usr/local/bin/node"
forever="/usr/local/bin/forever"
forever_opts="--minUptime 1000 --spinSleepTime 1000 -al $LOG_DIR/forever.log  -ao $LOG_DIR/statsd.log  -ae $LOG_DIR/statsd.log"

start_command="$forever start $forever_opts $exec $CONFIG"

[ -e /etc/sysconfig/statsd ] && . /etc/sysconfig/statsd

lockfile=/var/lock/subsys/statsd

my_basename=`basename $exec $exec_ext`

start() {
    [ -f $CONFIG ] || exit 6
    [ -e $exec ] || exit 5
    echo -n $"Starting $my_basename: "
    # STDOUT redirection to suppress "forever process FOO" message
    daemon "$start_command >/dev/null"

    retval=$?
    echo
    if [ $retval -eq 0 ] ; then
	touch $lockfile
        # fancy footwork to get the proper pid into the pidfile note
	# that we we actually put in here is the pid of forever's
	# monitor as the script pid when/if forever restarts statsd
	$forever list --plain | /bin/grep $exec | /bin/awk '{ print $7 }' > $pidfile
    fi

    return $retval
}

stop() {
    echo -n $"Stopping $my_basename: "
    #killproc -p $pidfile $my_basename
    $forever stop $exec >/dev/null 2>&1
    retval=$?
    if [ "$retval" -eq 0 ] ; then
	echo_success
    else
	echo_failure
    fi
    echo
    [ $retval -eq 0 ] && rm -f $lockfile
    return $retval
}

restart() {
    stop
    start
}

rh_status() {
    #status -p $pidfile $my_basename
    #status -l $lockfile $my_basename
    status -p $pidfile -l $lockfile $exec

}

rh_status_q() {
    rh_status >/dev/null 2>&1
}

case "$1" in
    start)
        rh_status_q && ( echo "$my_basename already running" ; exit 0 )
        $1
        ;;
    stop)
        rh_status_q || ( echo "$my_basename not running" ; exit 0 )
        $1
        ;;
    restart|reload)
	#rh_status_q && stop
	#rh_status_q || start
        #$1
	restart
        ;;
    # reload)
    #     $1
    #     ;;
     status)
         rh_status
         ;;
    # condrestart|try-restart)
    #     rh_status_q || exit 0
    #     restart
    #     ;;
    *)
        echo $"Usage: $0 {start|stop|status|restart}"
        exit 2
esac
exit $?