LITTLE ROCK — It was a good weekend for the Arkansas Razorbacks, but sometimes in the midst of joy, sadness or concern over a game and how it was played, life sticks its head up and says, it is just a game.
After the game, two families felt the pain of Heaven’s gain.
Saturday evening, Matt Turner, 32, who had just worked at KTHV-TV, Channel 11, for a month, was killed in a one-car accident.
On Monday, our man Tom Murphy lost his mom Patricia suddenly.
She had some surgery last week and it started to turn bad Thursday.
Murphy, who was in Atlanta, drove to her home in Marietta, Ga., and spent most of the day and the evening with her.
He covered the Razorbacks victory Saturday in Auburn, Ala., but he was quiet and made a few private calls during timeouts.
Sunday morning, while at the airport, he got the call his mom had gone into a coma. He immediately left for Marietta, and was there when she passed away Monday.
She never regained consciousness, but she knew he was there for her just as he had been his entire life.
I heard about Matt on television before meeting my daughter Whitney and her husband Brad for our weekly dinner of Mexican food, and when I arrived they had beaten me there for a change.
Whitney was dejected and asked if I had heard about Matt.
They knew each other through Matt’s wife, Julee, because they attended OBU together and were friends.
Brad and I listened to her sadness and even suggested we could set up a fund to help Julee and their 10-month-old Presslee.
By Monday morning, Bo Mattingly, Matt’s best friend, had the wheels in motion to help and in lieu of flowers donations can be made to help Matt’s family through this tragedy at any Summit Bank in Arkansas. There is also a silent auction for Presslee’s college education at lifesweetlifeblog.com.
The first time I met Matt he was new to the television sports reporting world in Fayetteville, and I noticed him watching the group of guys I was visiting with. When we broke up, he approached, offered a firm handshake and introduced himself with, “My wife loves your daughter, they went to OBU together. I went there, too.”
We chatted briefly but it didn’t take long to take note of the intelligence, courtesy and respect he had for people and his profession.
We never got close, but I watched him improve and never take an interview off. Always working. Always professional.
Even through a lengthy illness he refused to complain and always did more than asked for the KNWA-TV team covering the Razorbacks.
He and Julee, strong Christians, wanted a family, and, when after two years she got pregnant, he was the happiest man on the planet.
Each day, no matter where he was, he took time to write in a journal on his phone. He wanted to make sure Presslee knew about her dad if something ever happened to him.
They had just moved to Little Rock and it wasn’t expected to be his final stop. He was good enough for a bigger market. Smart and talented, he had something else, call it twinkle, that helped him give a gentle touch to tough assignments.
Now, suddenly, Saturday evening, a family and friends lost a really good person, and while it was God’s gain, he will be missed by a young family, his family and legions of friends and followers.
Sports, Pages 13 on 10/09/2012