By By Lisa Tindell: news editor
Fannie Mae McCall Byrd had planned to spend the weekend with family celebrating her 50th wedding anniversary with her husband, John.
The longtime W.S. Neal Elementary School substitute teacher was killed Wednesday and four others injured - including three of her family members - in a two-car accident on Alabama 41 just north of Brewton.
Byrd, 70, was killed when the 1989 Plymouth she was driving collided with a 1998 GMC truck driven by Jamie Allen Hammac just after 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, according to Alabama State Troopers.
Jamie Allen Hammac was injured in the incident and was transported by LifeFlight to Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola, Fla.
Also injured in the accident were three passengers in the car driven by Byrd. Injured were Byrd's daughter, Angela Hammac, 37; and grandsons, Robert Austin Hammac, 13; and Justin Hammac, 16, all of Brewton. They are apparently of no relation to the other driver. Robert Austin Hammac was also transported by LifeFlight to Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola, while the others injured were transported by ambulance to D.W. McMillan Hospital.
Justin - a football player at W.S. Neal High School - was apparently a hero in the accident, according to high school counselor Gwynne Shell.
Robert Austin Hammac and Angela Hammac were expected to be released from the hospital by this weekend, Shell said.
Counselors were on hand for students and faculty Thursday in response to the death of Byrd, who had become a fixture at the school, W.S. Neal Principal John Knott said.
“Our counselor, Mrs. Chancery, and other counselors talked with students and faculty who were upset by Mrs. Byrd's death. Mrs. (Sandra) Reid and I also went into the classrooms and spoke with the children.”
Students in third and fourth grade at the school were shaken by the news.
Knott said Byrd had substituted during the week prior to her death.
Byrd and her husband, John, were in the midst of planning a 50th wedding anniversary celebration set for this weekend at the school, Knott said.
Knott said Byrd was such a part of the family that she shared her life and love with students and faculty at the school.
Funeral services for Byrd are set for Monday at 10 a.m. from the chapel at Williams Memorial Chapel Funeral Home. She is survived by her husband, one son, three daughters and other relatives.
In an unrelated incident, Richard Wayne Terry, 28, of East Brewton was killed in a single-vehicle accident Oct. 29 when the vehicle he was driving wrecked on State Road 7 in the Royal Palm Beach, Fla., area.
According to reports, Terry's 1994 Nissan Maxima left the road and drove over curb before striking a large metal utility pole head-on. Palm Beach County fire-rescue officials pronounced him dead at the scene.
Terry was a 1999 graduate of T.R. Miller High School and was a member of the East Brewton Assembly of God church.
Funeral services for Terry have been set for Sunday at 2:30 p.m. at the East Brewton Assembly of God church.
Terry and Byrd were both remembered at the Neal-Miller football game Friday night in Brewton.
Complete obituary information for Byrd and Terry can be found on page 3A of today's Brewton Standard.