Local listings from all over 80,000 websites.
Last Edited: Monday, 27 Apr 2009, 5:51 PM CDT Created On: Monday, 27 Apr 2009, 4:21 PM CDT SELMER, Tenn. – On a warm spring day each piece glistens in the sunlight. A small horse-shoe shaped monument neatly composed of concrete benches and a fountain only spans a few feet inside the Selmer City Park in McNairy County. It’s a reflective dedication erected to pay homage to lost young lives swept away in the chaos of a tragic accident. On Monday, Selmer Middle School teacher, Terri Smith, led a contingent of students to the memorial site which they had periodically visited as it was being built. A somber Smith says, “I look at it. I think how nice it is that the city has done something to honor these families. I know it’s a tragic loss and it’s hard for anybody to get over a loss.”
Nearly twenty-two months have passed since six people, ranging in age from 15 to 22, were killed after a drag race car veered into a previously festive parade crowd in June 2007. Four of the teenage victims, including sisters 15-year old Raven and 19-year old Nicole Griswell, along with 20-year old Brook Pope of Selmer, now have their names separately carved in the new stone of the monument which was officially dedicated as a permanent memorial on Sunday.