Brothers die in auto accident Two teenage sons of a Marion man were killed this weekend in an automobile accident in Livingston County.
Joseph Andrew “Joey” Martin, 16, and Donald Brandon “Donnie” Martin, 18, died Saturday morning in a one-vehicle wreck on U.S. 60 between Smithland and Burna. (See obituaries on page 7A.) Though both teens lived in Smithland with their mother, Darlene Newell, their father, Donald Martin, resides in Marion. Both boys at one time had lived in Marion, having attended church and school in Crittenden County, according to a family friend.
“They were very close,” Misty Markham said of the family, particularly the brothers. “Where one was, the other was.”
Markham, a senior at Livingston Central High School, lives in Salem and has known the Martins for several years, even regularly giving Joey rides to school when she passed through Smithland on her way to class.
“We all grew up together,” she said.
Markham said Joey and Donnie went to middle school in Crittenden County and attended Marion Baptist Church for some time. The longtime friend said the brothers were headed to visit famliy in Birdsville when the wreck occurred.
Livingston County Deputy Jeff Peck, who worked the double fatality, said the oldest brother, Donnie, was driving a maroon Ford Focus with Joey as a passenger when he failed to negotiate a right-hand curve on a rain-slicked U.S. 60. Headed east from Smithland toward Burna, the car began to slide in the roadway near the intersection with River Road, striking a concrete culvert on the driver's side door.
“The road was slick from the rain and the car slid sideways,” Peck said. “They just came into the curve too fast.”
Peck told The Press the boys were pronounced dead at the scene shortly after 10 a.m.
The driver of another car that had been behind the Martins until turning onto River Road toward Birdsville was the first to report the accident. Peck, who did not name the other driver, said he reported looking back after turning off and saw steam spewing from the wrecked vehicle.
Neither teen was wearing a seatbelt, Peck reported. Their bodies had to be extricated by rescue workers, he said.
“It’s another unfortunate loss for us,” Jack Monroe, superintendent of Livingston County Schools, told The Paducah Sun newspaper. “We’re all certainly saddened by it. Our hearts go out to the family.”
Joey was a junior at Livingston Central High School and like his older brother Donnie enjoyed playing basketball. The two had just gotten a four-wheeler.
“They just enjoyed the normal stuff that young teenagers like to do,” Markham said. “They were very easy-going.”
Donnie was employed at Higdon Furntiure in Paducah. Markham said he, particularly, enjoyed working on old cars and other mechanical equipment.
“We’re devestated they were both lost,” Markham said.
Services were held Tuesday at Salem, with burial at Birdsville Cemetery.
As of Monday, there had been 809 traffic fatalities in Kentucky, 51 less than at the same time last year.
Mathis retiring from practice When Howard Mathis looks not so far into the future, he sees lots of fishing. But, that may not be a perfect 20/20 glance ahead if his wife has any say.
"Maybe I'll get some work out of him around the house, too" said Marcella Mathis, correcting her husband's vision like that of so many patients he has helped over the years.
After 37 years and looking into some 30,000 sets of eyes, the longtime Marion optometrist is hanging up his penlight, rolling up his eye charts and calling it quits. At 65, his health has caught up with him and it's time to leave his practice behind.
"I wanted to work until I was 70, but the doctor suggested I quit now and concentrate on my health," he said last Wednesday. "To retire and transfer my practice is a most difficult step necessary in caring for my own health."
Dr. Mathis is retiring at the end of the year, though he will see his last patient on Saturday. The practice he has maintained on South Main Street in Marion since 19XX will remain open, however, under the new ownership of Adria Porter, who was hand-picked by the Mathises to continue his tradition of eyecare.
"We had a lot of offers from all over," Mathis said. "But we wanted someone we knew."
The couple said they even turned down offers of more money in favor of Porter, a Crittenden County native.
"I am sure that you could not have better care," the doctor said.