iNSIDE SCOOP: Gone Too Soon

Larry Sparks spent his life doing what men used to do: provide, protect and work to make the next generation better than his own.

He was a principal at Tri-West High School in Pittsboro, Ind., and before that he was a teacher there. After he retired, he drove a bus for the school system. He taught driver's ed, and his most famous pupil was a young man named Jeff Gordon, the same guy who went on to win four NASCAR titles and is in the running for a fifth.

Larry Sparks was one of those old-school guys who are disappearing faster than anyone would like. There's no nonsense about him: what you saw was what you got. He would give it to you straight, no chaser, and if you didn't like it or agree, well, that was your lookout.

His wife Jackie was the counterpoint. She was sweet, grandmotherly and kind. They went together like bacon and eggs, and they shared that generational gift that makes good men and women follow on.

Their daughter, Debbie, is a blend of the two, as you would expect. She was injured in the RV crash that killed her parents, off I-75 in Jellico, Tenn. 

Larry sat down with me in 2007 to talk about his time as Jeff Gordon's driving instructor.

"I drive a morning school bus now, and I stop every morning where he lived to pick up two kids," he said then. "I know his step-dad (John Bickford) real well, and his mom."

How was Gordon as a driver on the public roads? Sparks said he was just fine.

"He was a good, conscientious driver," he remembered. "Always very respectful, always had his homework done, just like Mom and Dad wanted him to do."

Larry and Jackie Sparks were the kind of people that made America what it is, or at least what it was once. They loved their families, their neighbors and their community. Jackie taught in the same school system as Larry, and after she retired came back to be a lunch monitor and substitute teacher. Their son-in-law, Don Dorrell, was Gordon's geometry teacher. Debbie works in the school system as well.

When we lose people like Larry and Jackie, it makes you think a little bit. Yes, they were getting along in years, but the Larry Sparks I met seven years ago was as full of life and vigor as anyone half his age. He had been there, done that and helped others on the path. Jackie had too, and while their methods might be a little different from each other, everybody went the same direction on that path.

I sort of lost touch with the Sparks' over the years, but always remembered them for what they were: solid Americans, great people and fantastic reminders of the way things ought to be.

Godspeed to both of them, and prayers for Debbie. They will be missed.