Year In Review: Deaths

As we wrap our 2020 year in review we remember the loss of a Franklin County Sheriff’s deputy.

 

On the evening of July 18, Deputy William “Bill” Garner was working a wreck on I-85 at Exit 164 when he was struck by an oncoming vehicle.

 

Chief Investigator Jimmy LeCroy said the vehicle, a 2018 Honda Accord driven by Abdulhafiz Tawfik Aduullahi, 21 of Lawrenceville, left the road and struck Deputy Garner who was working a wreck in the center median.

 

EMS arrived on the scene and worked on Garner at the scene then transported him to St. Mary’s Sacred Heart Hospital in Lavonia where he died from his injuries.

 

Aduullhai is charged with First Degree Vehicular Homicide and in November was indicted on one count of homicide by vehicle in the second degree, failure to maintain lane, and driving too fast for conditions.

 

Deputy Garner was 53-years old and leaves behind a wife, parents, and a brother.

 

LeCroy said Garner had only been with the Franklin County Sheriff’s office for a year.

 

In August, Franklin County Commissioners approved a resolution honoring the life and service of Franklin County Deputy Garner.

 

The framed resolution was then presented to Deputy Garner’s wife.

 

Commissioners then held a moment of silence in Garner’s memory and presented his widow, with a framed copy of the proclamation.

 

 

In addition to the loss of Deputy Garner, 2020 also saw the loss of two other notable local residents.

 

In September COVID claimed the life of Dr. Mark Ivester, President of North Georgia Technical College.

 

At the time, the school released a statement that Ivester had passed away after losing his battle to Covid-19. 

 

A resident of Toccoa, Dr. Ivester became the sixth president of North Georgia Technical College in 2016. 

 

Prior to that, he served as Vice President for Economic Development and Vice President of Administrative Services at the school.

 

His funeral service was live-streamed on Facebook.

 

Dr. Ivester was 57.

 

Then in December, Royston native and author Terry Kay passed away after a battle with cancer according to his family. 

 

Born in Royston in 1938,  Kay is probably most famous for his novel, To Dance with the White Dog, which was published in 1991 and won him the Southeastern Library Association’s Outstanding Author of the Year.

 

The book was based in part on his father’s experiences after the death of Kay’s mother and was a bestseller, selling especially well in Japan, where 2 million copies sold.

 

A 1993 movie starring Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy aired on the Hallmark Hall of Fame, winning an Emmy Award for Cronyn.

 

Kay won a Southern Emmy Award in 1990 for his teleplay, Run Down the Rabbit.

 

His novel The Valley of Light won the 2004 Townsend Prize for Fiction.

 

In 2006, Kay received the Appalachian Heritage Writers Award.

 

In addition to To Dance With the White Dog, two other books, The Runaway and The Valley of Light, were adapted as movies.

 

Terry Kay was 82.