Couple remembered for devotion to one another

Posted on August 10, 2016

By ANGELA M. CASTELUCCI / Staff writer

When close friend Nancy Taylor Geohagan offered to drive Hugh Poppell, 67, to Tallahassee Monday morning for a doctor’s appointment, he was quick to decline the offer and told her not to worry.

Geohagan then offered to stay with his wife, Betty, while Poppell went to the appointment on his own.

His second answer was just as quick as the first, a sincere, “She’ll go with me.”

Geohagan’s final suggestion was that she ride along with the couple.

“No, if something were to happen, I need you to be at the house,” he told her.

That final statement proved to be prophetic: Poppell and his wife were killed in a single vehicle crash Monday morning, Aug. 8, while traveling to Tallahassee.

PHOTO: Tire marks at the scene of Monday’s one-vehicle crash show a straight line of travel across the median, both southbound lanes of U.S. Highway 19 and into a patch of woods located on the west shoulder of the road. The truck collided with several trees before coming to a final stop. The driver, Hugh Poppell, and his wife, Betty, were traveling to Tallahassee for a doctor’s appointment. 

Subscribe to our e-Edition and read the rest of the story. Already a subscriber? Click here to sign in.