Robert Fleming didn’t know the man who lived in the house that couldn’t be seen from the highway due to the out-of-control overgrowth of bushes and trees. But 62-year-old John Francis Willcutts was a familiar sight among neighbors and motorists as he often walked the roadside of Winterville Road in east Athens.
On April 8, Willcutts died in a fire that virtually destroyed his wood-frame house.
Four days later, Fleming; his sister, LaFarrah Smith; her daughter, Jazlyn Maddox; and, neighborhood resident Rose Johnson held a memorial service for Willcutts. Fleming’s brother, Kokleyn Scott, built a cross, and his sister installed solar-lit flowers to remember this man who lived a somewhat mysterious life in his abode shrouded by nature.
“I always saw him walking and pushing a buggy and sometimes he might be playing a guitar while he was walking,” Fleming recalled Wednesday.
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Fleming was the first person who tried to help Willcutts at the fire scene. Fleming who lives on Sartain Drive across the road from the Wilcutts house, was leaving in his vehicle shortly after noon on April 8 when he saw smoke.
“I first thought he was burning trash or something,” he said. “And all of a sudden the smoke got bigger and the flames got higher and I thought it’s on fire.”
Fleming called 911 and two other motorists also stopped to help.
The lot containing the house is thickly overgrown and a narrow dirt drive leads to the rear of the house. That tangled environment made Fleming cautious.
“That’s what scared me about going back there because I didn’t know if anything back there would blow up like gasoline on a propane tank,” he said.
A memorial for fire victim John Willcutts as seen at night.
But the heat from the fire was too much and the would-be rescuers waited as personnel from the Athens-Clarke County Fire Department arrived to fight the fire and pull Willcutts body from the structure.
Little is known of Willcutts, but he did post on Facebook that he was originally from Galesburg, Illinois, and has engineering degrees from Rice University and the University of Florida.
Willcutts has a son, who lives out of state and could not be reached.
However, the son posted a comment on Facebook about his father that read, “You were unapologetically yourself – a misunderstood rebel, lover of nature, a conspiracy theorist, a skilled guitar player.”
The Athens-Clarke County Fire Department reported the fire originated in the rear portion of the house, but the cause is yet undetermined. Anyone with information may contact the Assistant Fire Marshal Kevin Kearney at 706-613-3365.
This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Athens fire victim remembered at small roadside memorial service