JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – George Cooper Jr. was supposed to be moving back to Jacksonville. Instead, his family was left planning his funeral.
The 24-year-old Florida State University graduate died in a wrong-way crash on Interstate 10 in Madison County, near Tallahassee, early Saturday morning. Investigators said Cooper was driving east when a 34-year-old woman from Orange Park crossed into oncoming traffic. Neither driver survived.
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His mother, Randral Cash, said the call came Saturday morning around 3:45 a.m.
“That was the worst phone call of me and his dad’s life,” Cash said.
Cooper, a computer science graduate who attended First Coast High School in Jacksonville, was known by family as “B-G.” His mother and grandmother, Belinda Fowler, said they saw something extraordinary in him from the very beginning.
“He must’ve been about one,” Fowler recalled. “And he handed me his bottle. ‘Grandma, don’t cry, here’s my bottle.’ He was about one year old.”
His academic drive showed itself early, too. Cash said Cooper entered a science fair on his own initiative — and took home the winning prize.
“He was so smart,” Cash said. “He did his first science project there because none of us did science. He wanted to do a science fair. He won first place. We’re like, okay! You’re that guy.”
The Florida Highway Patrol has not released a cause for why the Orange Park woman was traveling the wrong way on I-10. Cash said she believed the woman was not in her right mind.
“I don’t know how she could have been driving the wrong way on I-10 without not being in her right mind,” Cash said. “I just don’t understand how someone could drive 10 miles.”
Fowler was calling on the Florida Department of Transportation to add flashing lights to wrong-way warning signs on highway ramps.
“You know how the ramps have signs that say wrong way,” Fowler said. “I wish DOT would put up flashers. Maybe that would have caught her attention.”
Cooper’s family said the outpouring of support from Jacksonville has been overwhelming. So many friends wanted to attend services that the family had to find a larger venue.
Funeral services for George Cooper Jr. are scheduled for June 20 at Mt. Vernon Baptist Church on Prince Street in Jacksonville.
Cooper’s family said they are grateful for the 24 years they had with him.