Rural studio student killed in wreck
Published 12:00 am Wednesday, March 24, 2004
A student with the Rural Studio in Newbern was killed Sunday in a two-car accident northeast of Marion.
Shelly Martin, 20, a junior at Auburn University, died in an accident at the intersection of Highways 5 and 14 in Perry County.
According to the Marion Police Department, Martin was traveling alone east on Highway 14 and failed to stop at a caution light. The other one-driver vehicle hit her traveling south on Highway 5. It is reported that her vehicle was hit on the passenger side.
Police received the call at 1:18 p.m. Sunday. She was declared dead on the scene, the Marion Police spokesman said.
The Rural Studio students attended a memorial service for Martin Tuesday at the School of Architecture at Auburn.
Martin was describing as a very outgoing person by people who knew her in Hale County. She had gone by Sunday morning to visit Jimmy Lee “Music Man” Matthews, a Newbern resident whose home the Rural Studio helped construct, and she then was traveling to the studio’s Perry Lakes Project in Marion when the accident occurred.
She was a member of Clay United Methodist Church. She graduated from Clay-Chalkville High School in 2002 and was on the Cougarette Dane Line.
She played on the school soccer team, was vice president of Student Council, officer of the National Honor Society and a member of Tau Sigma Delta Honor Society.
Martin was working on her degree in architecture. She wanted to be a missionary and build homes for the needy.
Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, March 24 at Jefferson Memorial Chapel in Trussville with Pastor Mike pope officiating.
Burial will be held in Jefferson Memorial Gardens under the direction of Jefferson Memorial Funeral Home and Gardens.
She is survived by her parents, Ralph and Leslie Martin of Oxford, Ala.; two brothers, Todd Seales (Brooke) of St. Petersburg, Fla. and Joel Martin of Auburn; grandparents, James and Carolyn Nelson of Birmingham and H.L. Martin of Ashville; a niece, Tyler Ford; and numerous family members and lots of friends.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Jessie’s Place in Birmingham.