Burlington mourns

Support extended as community deals with deaths of three students in crash

By Ed Nadolski

Editor in Chief

For more than 20 years Troy Everson has seen countless roadside tragedies and the effect they have on families and their communities as a Gold Badge member of the Burlington Rescue Squad. But nothing, he said, compares to the pain wrought by Sunday evening’s crash in the Town of Lyons that took the lives of three popular Burlington students.

“Burlington is hurting,” Everson said Wednesday. “There’s a huge void right now. The greatest resource any community has is its youth and its youth is hurting.”

However, given the level of support the community has offered the families of the victims and the students who knew them, Everson said he is confident they will rebound.

“They need to know happiness is on the horizon.”

Burlington High School juniors Jason Davis and Hunter Morby, both 17, and 2015 BHS graduate Landen Brown, 20, were killed Sunday when the car they were in collided with a tree and burst into flames in the Town of Lyons, according to officials with the Walworth County Sheriff’s Department.

Davis was driving a family car with Morby in the front passenger seat and Brown in the back seat during the crash that occurred on Cranberry Road east of Berndt Road, according to investigators.

Sheriff’s officials said the three were in a 2003 Volkswagen Jetta that was traveling east on Cranberry Road at a high speed when it left the road and struck a tree in a ditch on the north side of the road. First responders, who were summoned at 7:01 p.m., found the car smashed against a tree fully engulfed in flames with all three occupants deceased and badly burned, the news release said.

The crash remained under investigation early this week by the Sheriff’s Office Crash Investigation Unit and the Walworth County Medical Examiner’s Office.

The three were tentatively identified following interviews with family members, however, positive identification was predicated on confirmation through dental records, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

 

School offers support

Everson, who was among the rescue personnel responding to the crash, is also well acquainted with the Davis, Brown and Morby as their teacher and/or drama director at BHS.

The loss of the three will have a tremendous and lasting affect on the school and community, he said.

“I have been at the start, middle and end of many healing processes,” Everson said. “This one is the largest I’ve ever worked through with this community.”

Everson said he and the students have been buoyed by the response of the Burlington Area School District, which has gone out of its way to have counselors available to students as well as hosting a communitywide gathering Tuesday to begin the healing process.

Everson was among the speakers at the gathering, offering respectful profiles of both Davis and Morby, who are currently in his classes. Clinical social worker Mervin Langley, Ph.D., spoke about grief and healing in an effort to support students and parents.

Participants had a chance to create luminaries with special messages of farewell and support that were used to line the school track for walkers following the gathering.

“Our deepest sympathy goes out to the families and friends of these students. Please keep these families and our community in your thoughts as we work through this difficult time,” a news release issued by the district Tuesday said.

 

Community mourns

As news of the crash broke in the community, it was quickly followed by expressions of sorrow and condolences to the families of the three on social media.

Burlington Mayor Jeannie Hefty wrote on her Facebook page:

“Our community has suffered the tragic loss of young individuals.

“Our hearts go out to these families and I know this community will help in any way we can.

“My thoughts are with the Lyons Fire and Rescue who was the lead response. Burlington Rescue and Burlington Town Fire also assisted in Lyons. These are tough calls for everyone involved.

“Keep these families in your thoughts and prayers.”

All three of the victims were popular among their classmates at the school. Brown and Morby were both well known for their vocal performances with the school music and drama departments.

Less than a week earlier, Morby sang a solo in the song “God Bless the U.S.A.” as part of a Memorial Day tribute with the Vocal Motion a cappella choir at the school’s spring concert May 22. Morby, who appeared in many school productions – starting in seventh grade with the role of Gavroche in “Les Miserables” – recently finished up the play “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” in the role of Mr. Salt.

Everson said of Morby, “I’ve never met a more confident and humble person in my life. And while that might sound like it, it is not a contradiction of terms – it describes the essence of Hunter Morby.”

 

Making a mark in music

Brown was a beat boxer for the A Cappella Choir while at BHS – a role he continued in college as a member of the University of Wisconsin-Parkside Range, an elite school choir that performed at staff functions, community gatherings, student events and at UW-Parkside’s recent spring commencement.

“While not everyone may have known his name, those who saw and heard Landen perform were undoubtedly impressed with his rare talent and distinctive beat-box style,” UW-Parkside Chancellor Debbie Ford said in a statement issued by the university Tuesday. “As we mourn Landen’s loss, and the loss of other UW-Parkside students who have been taken from us and their families far too soon, we will hold in our hearts the joy each of them brought with their enthusiasm and energy.”

The release noted that Brown, a sophomore, was the third UW-Parkside student to die in a car crash in the past six months.

Everson called Brown a “pillar of the Burlington High School performing arts community” and said his concern for other students was his hallmark.

Davis played drums in the band and was a member of the track and field team, according to his obituary. Everson taught Davis in his first-hour forensic science class and his seventh-hour anatomy and physiology course.

“Jason Davis was my bookends each day,” Everson said. “He was quiet, but had a keen sense of timing when it came to his sense of humor. You had to pay attention to make sure you caught it.”

“He was a phenomenal kid,” Everson continued. “I have never heard him say a negative word about another student, teacher or community member – and that’s rare.”

 

Funerals slated

A joint visitation and funeral service for Davis and Morby will be held Saturday in the Burlington High School gymnasium. The visitation begins at 4 p.m. and the service follows at 7 p.m.

The visitation and service for Brown will also be held Saturday at BHS. The visitation is scheduled from 1 to 2:45 p.m. in the commons area and the service will follow at 3 p.m. in the auditorium.

Complete obituaries for Brown and Davis appear on the obituary tab of this site. Morby’s family declined to have an obituary published, but it can be found online at danielsfamilyfuneral.com.