HOT SPRINGS – In a personal post on Facebook this past weekend, R.J. Wright shared a photo message that his wife Judith “Garland” Wright had sent him earlier in their marriage that said: “Sometimes you have to let go of the picture of what you thought life would be like & learn to find joy in the story you’re living.”
The post embodied a new harsh reality for the Wright family – and for so many others in Fall River County and beyond – following the tragic accident last Tuesday morning, Jan. 28, when Garland was traveling with her and R.J.’s two sons from their home near Angostura Dam to Edgemont, where she was a teacher and their boys went to elementary school.
Garland died in the accident when the car she was driving struck the back of a tractor pulling farm equipment as both vehicles were traveling westbound on Hwy. 18, four miles west of Hot Springs. The Wright’s oldest son, Morgan, 10, suffered only minor injuries, but their youngest, Weston, 6, was life-flighted to a Children’s Hospital in Aurora, Colo., where he remains today but is making very good progress and expected to make a full recovery.
The depth of this tragedy and the amount of people sharing in the heartache is a testament to the positive impact Garland had on the many lives she touched during her 38-plus years on earth; as a daughter, wife, mom, friend, cousin, school teacher, mentor, newspaper reporter and so much more.
A world traveler since birth, Garland was part of a military family and born on June 19, 1986, at Fort Hood, Texas, to Col. Terry and Leanne DeRouchey – now residents of Hot Springs. She, along with her two-yearsolder brother Joe, moved from Texas to Venezuela to Spain to Colorado to Jamaica to Hawaii to Washington, D.C. to Argentina and back to Venezuela in less than two decades.
Leanne, Garland’s mom, described her daughter as being “outgoing in every way” and the “star of the show” with a zest for life in all that she did.
Garland graduated from a Spanish-speaking high school in Venezuela in 2004 where she was the class Salutatorian.Shethenearned her undergraduate degree from Tulane University in New Orleans followed by an Ivy League masters degree in Urban Education from the University of Pennsylvania.
Recalling their time together as roommates at Tulane, Garland’s college best friend Julie Jacober, now of Santa Rosa, Calif., said, “She was like this beacon of light that drew people in, and since she was such a pleasure to be around, everyone just enjoyed being in her presence … She was creative, honest, generous, compassionate, resilient and the type of person who would drop everything she was doing if you needed help.”
“Garland and I shared a lot in common, including our love of travel, good food, and our favorite movie Jurassic Park,” added Jacober. “But we were also different in many ways. She was a night owl, I was a morning person. She excelled in public speaking and writing essays and absolutely despised math and science classes. I was the complete opposite. And when we roomed together our sophomore year, we learned very quickly that one of us was quite messy and the other very orderly – and this was something R.J. and I connected over and would laugh about years later.”
In 2010, while working for the non-profit Teach for America in Philadelphia’s inner city, Garland chose to “temporarily” move to South Dakota and live with her parents after her dad developed liver disease and was in dire need of a transplant. While at her parent’s home and aiding in her father’s recovery, Garland picked up a waitress/bartending gig at The Hitchrail in Pringle, which is where the picture of what she thought her life would be like began to change, when she met the man she would eventually marry.
R.J. recalls seeing Garland for the first time behind the bar during one of his frequent visits to the establishment with friends Brett Jensen and James Forbord, who both egged him on to ask her out. After eventually connecting through F a c e b o o k me s s e n ge r, R.J.’s trips to The Hitchrail became even more frequent as their courtship began to take off, resulting in Garland deciding to stick around South Dakota a bit longer than originally anticipated.
While dating and living together, Garland took a teaching job at Rapid City Stevens and was commuting there from Hot Springs for about three years. Her brother Joe was teaching in Spain during this time which created an opportunity for Garland to continue her worldly aspirations and move there as well to teach English as a second language. However, the bond to stay in South Dakota with R.J. proved too strong for separation and the two got engaged and eventually married on Oct. 19, 2013.
R.J.’s mom Sandy Wright of Rapid City, who is with him now in Colorado, says everyone in their family instantly fell in love with Garland the moment they met her. After raising three boys of her own – with R.J. being the oldest – Sandy said she never had a daughter and was quite particular about the girls whom her boys would date. But Garland not only checked every box; she checked a lot of “extra” boxes too.
“She was so extra in so many ways. She just showed up extra,” Sandy said, while recounting how Garland would always bring ‘extra this’ or ‘extra that’ to their family get-togethers.
As another example of her ‘extra-ness,’ Sandy described how Garland helped prepare the decorations for R.J.’s and her wedding by buying stacks of colorful 5-inch paper and folding the sheets into 1,000 little paper doves. Garland said she learned the tradition while living in Hawaii and said the practice was designed to teach the wife-to-be patience.
Garland’s parents also shared stories of their daughter’s passionate desire to “be extra.”
“If you needed a dozen cupcakes, she would make 250, with all of them fancy decorated,” said her dad Terry, while explaining how Garland would often take charge of their family’s reunions and organize every last detail.
The year after R.J. and Garland got married, she began teaching high school English in Edgemont, which developed into also teaching Spanish in grades K-12 as well.
“She was passionate about our district and the vision it has to customize learning,” said Edgemont Superintendent Amy Ferley, who was also one of Garland’s closest friends. “She originally began teaching Spanish when our high school students would come to her for tutoring in their distance-learning class. She asked if she could just teach the class, since it would be more engaging and better in person. That one high school course expanded to teaching the littles Spanish, since we know that younger students pick up language better.”
Garland also taught interest-courses, most recently starting a podcast with Edgemont’s middle school students, Ferley said. “She has produced our Veterans Day program. She’s sponsored the prom. She hosted virtually all the staff gatherings we have. She guided our seniors through their senior experiences. She’s baked birthday cakes for students who have never had a party, she’s arranged rides for students who need a job or a course outside of school, especially when she knew it was a class that will change the trajectory of that student’s life. She had a vast network of people and experiences to draw on to help students learn and to make her classroom better. She shared these resources not just with her students but with her colleagues. She wrote about our school and community, sharing the awesome things that make us special.”
Recently, Ferley said Garland was pursuing administration, and taking courses toward her education specialist and doctoral degrees. “She was an incredible leader of people, with the ability to teach and inspire adults, not just children,” Ferley added.
While excelling in the field of education, Garland’s true calling in life was being a mom to Morgan and Weston.
R.J. admitted that he initially did not have a desire to raise children when they first got married, but Garland was adamant that they start a family. He now refers to his two boys as “my greatest things” and the finest examples of the many times Garland encouraged him to challenge himself and get out of his comfort zone.
“I’ve always been good at avoiding stuff that makes me nervous but she pushed me to go places and have new experiences,” R.J. said recently by phone while describing his wife of nearly 12 years, as he watched over their youngest son from his hospital bed in Colorado. And now, once again, R.J. feels Garland’s encouragement to dig deep and push through the most difficult time of his life.
Garland was not afraid of trying new experiences herself. Despite being a socalled “city girl,” R.J.’s mom Sandy was impressed with how well Garland adapted to the country life that her son loved so much. When Morgan recently got involved with 4-H, Sandy said Garland went “all in” with the process and helped her son learn to lead his calf and ready it for show.
Despite growing up all over the world, Garland’s family roots on her father’s side were Cheyenne River Sioux, which was something she was very proud to share. Because of her light skin complexion and blonde hair, R.J. said he would jokingly refer to Garland as his “albino Pocahontas.”
He said she was always up to something new and sometimes “goofy” or “gimmicky,” as he explained how she would figure out what “hot items” to sell on Amazon as a new source of income for their family. He said she once bought out the town of Hot Springs’ entire supply of Raid Roach Killer because there was a shortage of the product in the southern United States. Little did they know however that private individuals in South Dakota aren’t allowed to ship the hazardous insecticides like that, so R.J. was stuck with several cases to eventually destroy himself.
Something else she got into buying and reselling were American Dolls.
R.J. said Garland would often purchase the dolls through places like Goodwill, and then – when she wasn’t doing school work or cooking or something else around the house – she would have them all out and be busy cleaning and fixing them up with new clothes or accessories while getting them ready to resell.
In addition to those types of entrepreneurial endeavors, Garland also found time to write one to two news stories per week for the Fall River County Herald-Star during the school year, and also work throughout the summer at Angostura Lodge.
At the same time Garland invested time in her many interests, R.J. said she never once complained or sought to criticize his obsessive interest in old trucks, which he has now passed down to both of their sons.
“My grandmother Jackie lost her husband at almost the same age as me and it broke her heart. For the rest of her life, she mourned the loss of my grandfather,” R.J. wrote in a recent Facebook post this past weekend. “I never understood that till this week. How’s a person to move on when you already had your perfect person found? I’ll always be thankful for everyone’s love and support, pray for us.”
Through all of the pain that R.J. has endured since the accident, he remains in awe of the amount of support shown to him and his family from all corners of the county. From the first responders on the scene, to the caregivers at the hospital and to the community members themselves, who have gone above and beyond to make sure things are taken care of, including financially.
Multiple donation sites have been set up through Black Hills Federal Credit Union and at local businesses, as well as electronic GoFundMe, Paypal and Venmo options, as ways for people to help the Wright family cover travel, food and other expenses while navigating through this tragedy.
Several fundraisers are also planned for the future, including a Spaghetti Dinner sponsored by the Southern Hills Drag Racing Association on Saturday, March 29, at the Hot Springs American Legion.
This past Saturday, the Prairie View United Methodist Church near Smithwick hosted its monthly First Saturday Breakfast where all proceeds were donated to the family. Garland’s parents, Terry and Leanne DeRouchey, attended that event with their grandson Morgan, who is staying with them while his dad R.J. tends to his little brother Weston in Colorado. Morgan also attended the Edgemont Moguls basketball game with his grandparents on Friday night, Jan. 31, where fans were all encouraged to wear bright colors in honor of Garland’s bright personality.
“Morgan is physically fine and taking care of his grandparents and staying busy,” R.J. said of his oldest son, whom he also describes as the “oldest 10 year old most people will ever meet.” Morgan went back to school in Edgemont on Monday, Feb. 3, “because it’s what Garland would have wanted. He’s crazy smart but also carries a ton of anxiety on a normal day, so obviously this has been extremely overwhelming.”
While R.J. and Garland’s youngest son Weston continues to show improvementwithhisphysical injuries, the emotional pain being experienced by the Wright family and those close to them will never heal completely.
“I’m honestly still in shock and don’t even know what to think or what to do about it,” said Garland’s cousin Whitney Cook, who lives in Knoxville, Tenn. “We were only six months apart and she was a sister to me and her boys are my nephews and will always be that way. I keep thinking she will walk in the door here and I will get to see her again. She was the greatest with the biggest smile. The biggest heart and was smarter than anyone I know. I will miss her every single day of my life. I just keep thinking about RJ and the boys and how she is going to miss on so many activities and life events. It’s just not fair.”
“Garland was not just my colleague, but my best friend,” said Amy Ferley. “She made me better in so many ways. Anytime I was frustrated or discouraged, she could help me step away from the situation, look at it objectively, and usually come up with solutions. She made me laugh. Always. She had a great sense of humor. She was interesting. She was smart. She was sophisticated. She was kind. She taught me how to accept people for who they are. She loved my family, even acting as a second mom to my kids. She supported me, even when I had crazy ideas. She helped keep me in check, telling me when I was expecting too much of people or myself. She encouraged me. She inspired me. She taught me to be present and really enjoy the moment. She was curious and always learning something new. She enriched my life and made me a better teacher, mom, friend. I am a better person for having known her.”