While Jerry Robinson of Vilonia was still in rehabilitation and mourning the death of his 50-year-old daughter, Jamye Collins, who was killed in the April 2014 tornado, church members were already planning a garden in her memory.
“It’s just a small place, not very big at all, but it’s beautiful, I think,” Robinson said. “The people who built it did a real good job on it,” he said of his fellow Landmark Missionary Baptist Church members.
Collins was one of eight people in Vilonia who died in the April 27, 2014, tornado that tore through three counties.
Robinson said he heard that the tornado was supposed to be headed down Rocky Point Road, where he and his daughter lived in a mobile home. They were trying to get to Conway to his son Scott Robinson’s home when they encountered the twister.
“Me and Jamye were in the car trying to run from the tornado, and it caught us,” Robinson said. “We went probably a mile, and we hit that thing dead center over on the bypass, west of Coker Road. I told my daughter, ‘There it is.’ It picked us up and was swirling us around in the air, and then [the car] exploded.
“I seemed to be relaxed — wasn’t scared — and boom, all of a sudden it blew up. I don’t know if it was airbags or what. That’s when I lost consciousness. I never did see my daughter again. They found her dead in the field.
“I was trapped hanging in my vehicle upside down,” he said. Robinson said there wasn’t much left of his 2005 Malibu, and he had several injuries. “I had all my ribs fractured on the right side, my collarbone on the right side and broke my left ankle,” he said. “I was pretty well skinned up: cuts, bruises, stitches on my face.”
His 19-year-old West Highland terrier, Maxie, who was riding with them, was never seen again.
Robinson said his daughter, who was divorced, lived with him most of the time in Vilonia. His wife, Jonnie, died of breast cancer in 2007.
Collins, a 1982 graduate of Conway High School, worked at the SAS shoe factory in Conway until it closed in 2009, Robinson said. She was a clerk at Landmark Missionary Baptist Church, cleaned the church and worked with the young people in the Discover program on Wednesday nights. She also taught a kindergarten class on Sunday mornings.
“She was just a big worker in the church,” said Robinson, who is a deacon.
The Rev. Randy Cloud called Collins “a very faithful” church member and “a very sweet lady.”
“I conducted her funeral, and I’m telling you, the chapel was packed. The overflow rooms were packed. They just couldn’t get any more people in,” he said. “Jamye was just loved and appreciated so very much by our church family. She was a special lady. The young people loved her dearly.”
He said some women in the church came to him and suggested the memorial garden.
“People in our church just started working on this garden, and we did select a committee, but there were a good number of church members who just joined in,” he said.
Church member Peggy Harris was one of the committee members.
“It’s a small church, and everybody knew everybody — knew everybody’s life history,” Harris said. “It’s the kind of church when one hurts, everybody hurts.”
She said people from the Baptist association and other churches donated money for Collins’ funeral expenses. The committee decided to use some of the leftover funds for a memorial garden, and the youth ministry in the church paid for the marker.
“It took us about a year. We kind of did things in different stages as we could plant,” Harris said.
In addition to shrubs and flowers, Cloud said the garden has metal benches “where people can come and sit, or read or meditate. The space has a cross in the center and a stone marker, which includes a Razorback, the words “Woo Pig Sooie” and “Jesus Loves You,” and has a photo of her.
“She was an avid, avid Razorback fan,” Harris said.
Robinson said his daughter never missed a Razorback game, and they often watched televised University of Arkansas games together.
“I liked to kid her about it when they got beat; she was a good sport,” Robinson said. “My son gathered up all her [Razorback] shirts and had quilt tops made. She had enough shirts to have three quilt tops made.”
Cloud said the garden was dedicated at the end of May.
“When we had the service to dedicate the garden, people came from out of state,” he said. Razorback players knew Jamye, and she was friends with Razorback fans “all over” on Facebook.
Harris and Cloud said the garden is used often.
“We have people who just come and sit there and remember Jamye and read,” Cloud said. “Jamye touched a lot of lives and was loved, appreciated and respected. She was one of those church members who was a joy and a delight. I was privileged to be her pastor. She was a blessing to me and everybody.”
Robinson said he misses his daughter, and the garden will help keep her memory alive.
“It’s tough, you know. Time kindly heals. You never get over it, but you get used to it,” he said. “We’re supposed to bury our parents, but it doesn’t always happen that way.”
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.