Two months from her scheduled retirement, a rural postal worker was killed Tuesday in a two-vehicle collision along her FM 1300 route.
El Campo emergency responders raced to the farm-to-market road’s intersection with CR 387 northeast of the city around 2:10 p.m. There, they found 63-year-old Joyce Rennoldson’s Buick Century off the road and upside down.
Wharton County Justice of the Peace Precinct 3 Dennis Korenek pronounced Rennoldson dead at the scene at 2:15 p.m. and ordered an autopsy be conducted by the Travis County Medical Examiner’s Office.
The unidentified, 17-year-old driver of the second vehicle, a Chevrolet pickup, was reportedly unharmed and refused transport to the hospital.
Pierce Station Department of Public Safety troopers are trying to determine why the collision happened. The status of that investigation was unavailable as of presstime.
Rennoldson will be missed, El Campo Post Master Margaret Taylor-Sparks told the Leader-News Thursday.
Assigned to Rural Route 3, Rennoldson used her private vehicle to deliver mail to addresses along FMs 1300 and 441, through Hillje and into the area around CR 350.
She had been doing that job for 35 years and 10 months.
“She was a soft-spoken person, gentle, loved by many,” Taylor-Sparks said. “She worked with EMS and the volunteer fire department in Blessing. She played the organ at a church in Blessing and at a church in Markham.”
Tuesday, mail lay scattered across the roadway around where Rennoldson’s car rested on its top, forcing emergency responders to summon postal workers to the scene.
The post master and one other came, collecting the letters and other bits of mail to ensure Rennoldson’s final route was delivered.
For now, Taylor-Sparks added, another El Campo Post Office worker will step up and drive the route.
Rennoldson and her husband lived in Markham. The couple had no children.
“She was getting ready to retire in December,” the post master added.
A memorial service for Rennoldson will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 13, 2014 at Wheeler Funeral Home in El Campo.
Rural mail carrier dies in FM 1300 collision – Leader News: News.
so so sad to hear this story. Joyce God bless you I know life is not fair. rest in peace I hope you had lots of laughs in your 63 years the lord gave you.