13-Year-Old Killed
In Hancock Crash
By Sandy Vondrasek Cooch

A 13-year-old girl who grew up in Granville and had lived the past few years in Barre, was killed Monday afternoon, July 30, in a head-on collision on Route 100 in Hancock.

Shawna Linn Brown, thrown from the vehicle by the impact, was pronounced dead at the scene by a medical examiner.

State police said the driver Sammy Jo Wood, 18, of Granville, had been southbound on Route 100, at 1:18 p.m., when her vehicle crossed the centerline, into the path of a northbound vehicle drive by James Kibble, 53, of Kitchener, Ontario, Canada.

Police said Kibble tried unsuccessfully to avoid the collision. Police did not report any injuries to the two survivors of the crash. Kibble had been wearing a seatbelt, but neither of the teens had been using theirs. Police reported that Wood’s vehicle was totaled, and that Kibble’s sustained moderate front-end and passenger-side damage.

Police reported yesterday that an investigation of the crash is ongoing.

Yesterday an emotional Anthony Brown of Granville pushed himself on, through tears, to say a few words about his daughter.

"She was just the most lovingest girl in the world," he said. "Everybody liked her. She might bicker a bit with her friends, but she’d forget it the next day. She was easy-going."

Brown remembered a little girl who enjoyed outdoors activities, starting with creating her own "little hideout by the brook" as a youngster. As she got older, she enjoyed swimming, horseback riding, and hunting and fishing with her dad, Brown said.

Mary Sue Crowley, who works at the Granville School, this week remembered Shawna as "happy, bright, and vivacious."

Interestingly, when Shawna moved a few years ago to Barre, to live with her mom, she discovered that one of the co-principals at the school was Rochester resident Tim Crowley, Mary Sue Crowley’s husband.

The administrator and the new sixth grader sought each other out, because of their common background. After 16 years of commuting to Barre Town School to work, Crowley said, it was a treat to encounter someone "who knew where Bean’s Bridge was—she and I shared that."

Principal Crowley said it was a testament to Brown’s openness and adaptability that she was able to make a fairly quick transition from a one-room schoolhouse to one of the largest middle schools in the state.

Barre Town School "had more people working in the hot lunch program than attended her prior school," Crowley commented.

Teacher Mark Lembke of Chelsea recalled meeting with Brown, when she was having a problem adjusting early on. Lembke was impressed, Crowley related, how "one conversation turned her around."

"The staff found her to be friendly, very caring, a kid who smiled all the time," Crowley added.

Crowley pulled out a piece of Brown’s writing, in which she described three wishes—for a bigger house, to become a famous singer, and to win a $2-million shopping spree.

She went on to detail each wish—the bigger house, she wrote, would give her her own room, her mom a garden, and her step-dad a garage to work in—and concluded: "These probably won’t come true—but it’s all right to dream, and maybe if I’m lucky, they might come true."

Barre Town School has trophy cases, but they are used to showcase student writing and other work.

Crowley said that students returning to school this fall will find one of the cases dedicated to work by Brown.

An obituary for Shawna Brown appears in the B-section of this week’s Herald.