COVID claims lives of football coach, school worker days apart, Tennessee district says
Two Tennessee school district workers died of COVID-19 within days of each other, officials said.
Garry Mooney, a 51-year-old history teacher and assistant football coach for the Smyrna High School Bulldogs, reportedly felt sick before he took a turn for the worse this month.
“I don’t think the severity of his illness was recognizable until he was admitted to the hospital,” Sherri Southerland, the school’s principal, told the Daily News Journal.
Mooney died Oct. 6 after officials said he was hospitalized in Knoxville, which is “home to his beloved” team — the University of Tennessee Volunteers — and a place that he called “God’s Country.”
“Though he joined the #BulldogFamily only recently, the impact he had on us was already immeasurable,” Smyrna High School wrote on its Twitter page. “He will be deeply missed.”
He is remembered as a person who was dedicated to his faith, family and those he coached.
“Garry leaves a legacy from his youth leadership days as well as his coaching days among the countless youth whose lives he touched,” according to a post on the Dignity Memorial website. “He radiated constant positivity through his coaching and teaching that permeated every person he encountered.”
Just days after Mooney’s death, Rutherford County Schools announced that coronavirus-related complications had claimed another worker’s life during the district’s fall break.
Jennifer Baker Morton, an educational assistant at Rocky Fork Middle School, was hospitalized with the virus for more than a week, according to a GoFundMe page that says it is raising money to offset costs related to her illness. She died on Saturday.
“She will be missed more than words can say,” principal Jen Clark wrote on Twitter. “She loved @RockyForkMS and all the faculty, staff and students. ... And in return, everyone loved her!”
She is remembered on her GoFundMe page as someone who enjoyed making people laugh.
“Ms. Baker was such a great colleague but more importantly, she was an amazing friend,” Dustin Brannon, an assistant principal at the school roughly 25 miles southeast of Nashville, wrote on Twitter. “Our worlds will never be the same.”
Rutherford County Schools in a Facebook post didn’t say whether the two deceased educators had been vaccinated against COVID-19. During the coronavirus pandemic, health officials have urged eligible adults to get their shots.
Last year, four Rutherford County school employees died after contracting COVID-19, the Daily News Journal reported.
This story was originally published October 12, 2021 at 9:29 AM with the headline "COVID claims lives of football coach, school worker days apart, Tennessee district says."
