WILSON, N.C. — A new memorial in Wilson, N.C. honors a dozen North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) employees who lost their lives while on the job.
According to The Wilson Times, the NCDOT Division 4 memorial is located at 509 Ward Blvd. and includes a flag pole, benches, brick pavers and a stone paver, which lists the names of the employees who worked in Division 4, according to Andrew Barksdale, NCDOT communications officer. That division is headquartered in Wilson and covers Edgecombe, Halifax, Johnston, Nash, Wayne and Wilson counties.
“These employees of our Division 4 family paid the ultimate sacrifice while working to make our roads safer,” Barksdale told the Wilson Times. “We wanted to honor them. We are forever grateful for the public service.”
The memorial plaque reads, “Forever in Service, Forever in Our Hearts.” The names date back to 1975.
WILSON NCDOT WORKERS MEMORIALIZED
Wilson employees who were memorialized include Anna Gavin Bradshaw, Travis Cobb Ellis and William Charles King.
Bradshaw, an NCDOT Wilson County maintenance officer, was killed in a hit-and-run on U.S. 264 Alternate in 2022. She was holding a sign with a two-way “stop” and “slow” messages to direct traffic around a tree partially blocking the highway near Neverson Road outside Sims, officials previously said.
Cobb was struck and killed by an inattentive motorist in Wayne County in 1998 while he was working in the median, according to NCDOT officials. He worked for the division’s roadside environmental unit, which sprays for weeds, cuts the grass and collects litter.
King, who was assigned to NCDOT’s Wilson County maintenance yard, was killed when he was accidentally run over by a dump truck within a work zone in 1998, according to NCDOT officials. King was in a work zone conducting shoulder work to improve storm runoff from the road when the accident occurred, officials said.
DIVISION 4 EMPLOYEES MEMORIALIZED
- Carl Vance Oliver, 1978, Johnston County maintenance.
- Forest Maxwell Barrett Jr., 1980, Edgecombe County bridge maintenance .
- John Porter, 1981, Edgecombe County maintenance.
- Joseph Harrell Williams, 1994, Nash County maintenance.
- Travis Cobb Ellis, 1998, Wilson County roadside environmental.
- William Charles King, 1998, Wilson County maintenance.
- Carl Ray Collins, 2007, road oil unit, which is now referred to as maintenance.
- William Gray Bailey, 2015, Selma construction office.
- Anna Gavin Bradshaw, 2022, Wilson County maintenance.
- Mac Thomas Batchelor, 1975, Nash County maintenance.
- Charlie Daniel Eatmon, 1975, Nash County maintenance.
- Charles Gray Lewis, 1975, Nash County maintenance.
For more information on the program visit here.
Dana Guthrie is an award-winning journalist who has been featured in multiple newspapers, books and magazines across the globe. She is currently based in the Atlanta, Georgia, area.
