The Red and Black

Issue date: 6/19/08 Section: News

Media Credit: RENEE ALYWORTH A memorial service for Sara Beth Ward was held at Watson Mill State Park on Monday. Ward, a senior English major, was killed after her car collided head-on with a truck on the Athens Perimeter in Oconee County on Thursday, June 12. [Click to enlarge]

Media Credit: JIM DIFFLY English Professor Charles Doyle celebrates Sara Beth Ward's life Monday, with a poetry reading for Ward's friends at a memorial service held in front of Park Hall. [Click to enlarge]

Friends and teachers of Sara Beth Ward gathered together in front of Park Hall on Monday morning to celebrate her life.

Ward, a senior English major, was killed in a car accident Thursday night while traveling along the Athens Perimeter in Oconee County.

Several dozen people gathered at 10 a.m. around a podium in front of Park Hall. Although chairs were set out for those who wished to rest from the heat, no one sat during the service.

Charles Doyle, one of Ward's English professors, was the only person to speak. He read from Milton's "Lycidas," a poem dedicated to the memory of one of Milton's own colleagues .

Doyle also read a letter Ward had written about herself when she began her English major. She wrote about enjoying the onset of her college career and that "speaking about possibly pointless concepts was nerd-heaven."

"I will really miss her terrific sense of humor. She had a great wry wit that kept us all laughing," Channette Romero, assistant professor of English, said Wednesday. Romero taught Ward in two classes. "She was an incredibly likeable, down-to-earth woman."

Sujata Iyengar, associate professor of English, sent an e-mail to all English majors about the memorial.

The memorial was held by University English Department staff in lieu of a "Bloomsday" celebration for the life of writer James Joyce and his work Ulysses.

"Since Sara was so close to graduating, the department has been asked to investigate the possibility of conferring her English degree posthumously," Iyengar said Wednesday.

Another memorial service was held Monday evening at Watson Mill State Park. In a Facebook group called "Celebrating Sara," dress for the memorial was "casual like she would have wanted, and flip-flops are basically required."

Mea Berry of Chattanooga, Tenn., wrote on the wall of the Facebook group on Tuesday.

"My thoughts and prayers go out to Sara's family and friends," she said. "As you all know... Sara's fun, loving, free-spirited personality will be missed and never forgotten. We were all truley (sic) blessed to have even gotten to meet such a great person."

Ward's family is also maintaining an online memory book on the Athens Banner-Herald obituary page. Iyengar posted the link in her e-mail to English majors and encouraged them to "write something for her family."

According to police reports, Ward was driving east in her Saturn Ion when a truck, a 2001 International on the westbound side of the perimeter, crossed the median and hit her car head-on at about 8:30 p.m. Thursday.

The Athens Banner-Herald reported the truck driver, 61-year-old Tommy Barber of Elberton, was taken by ambulance to St. Mary's Hospital. Fire erupted in the car, and the truck spilled its load of tombstones as it rolled over, Trooper 1st Class J. Shirah of the Georgia State Patrol's Athens post told the newspaper.

Donations can be made in Ward's memory to the Georgia Humane Society.

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools