Life Saving Crew Holds Memorial Ride for Fallen Member
July 27, 2009 by Hersey · Leave a Comment
GLADE SPRING, Va. – Billie Jo Fogleman wanted a motorcycle for her 40th birthday.
So her husband, Jim, got her a shiny black Harley Davidson Sportster. Just weeks later on July 11, her first big ride with her husband and five friends, she was killed in an accident two hours away in North Carolina.
The Foglemans are longtime members of Washington County’s Life Saving Crew, and her death weighed heavily on the area’s close-knit rescue teams.
“It’s a brotherhood,” said friend Jerry “Pokey” Poston of volunteer rescue workers throughout the region, “We’re a family outside a family. And it’s been hell.”
Dozens of Southwest Virginia’s rescue volunteers, many of whom share Fogleman’s motorcycle hobby, gathered at the Glade Spring Volunteer Life Saving Crew station Sunday afternoon for a memorial ride and fundraiser.
The ride was originally planned as a 100-mile circle, but was cut short because of rain.
