By By Adam Prestridge
Posts from family and friends offering their “thoughts” and “prayers” flooded the Facebook page of Lee Shaughnessy, husband of Elizabeth Leigh Burke Shaughnessy, who was killed Sunday morning in a one-vehicle accident on Jack Springs Road.
Many longtime friends of the 39-year-old mother of two learned of her untimely death via the popular social networking Web site shocked and were upset by the news.
Cook, who currently serves as supervisor for the State Probation and Parole office in Brewton, worked with Shaughnessy at K-Mart in Brewton while he was in college. Shaughnessy’s bubbly approach to life has continued to make a mark on him many years later.
Cook added that Shaughnessy had once worked as a hostess at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla. and had once expressed to him that she would enjoy working with troubled female juveniles.
Shaughnessy also once worked as a dispatcher for the Atmore Police Department and later with Escambia County’s E911 Board. While with the APD, she met her best friend, administrative assistant Samantha Bennett.
While with E911, she began volunteering on the Escambia County Domestic Violence Task Force steering committee with Stephanie Jackson, director of the Escambia Regional Children’s Advocacy Center, in Brewton.
Jackson simply said that was just another way for Shaughnessy to lend a helping hand to others in need.
Jackson added that Shaughnessy’s death is a “huge loss,” to the entire community.
Shaughnessy was currently employed at Wind Creek Casino &Hotel, Bennett said.
Funeral services will be held at 10 a.m. March 12 at Johnson-Quimby Funeral Home with the Rev. Chris Pruitt officiating. Internment will follow at Union Cemetery in Brewton.
Visitation will be held from 6 p.m. until 8 p.m. on March 11 at Johnson-Quimby Funeral Home.
Through all the pain Shaughnessy’s family has dealt with the past three days, Lee Shaughnessy showed his appreciation to the community with a Facebook post just before noon Tuesday.
The crash remains under investigation by the Alabama State Troopers, who reported that Shaughnessy was not wearing a seat belt at the time of 9 a.m. accident. The report also stated that the airbags in the 2002 Chevrolet Suburban she was driving did not deploy.