Cancer survivor dies in crash with pickup

The civilian employee at the Sheriff's Office had just taken breakfast to his wife at her day-care job before the crash.

By AMY HERDY

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 12, 2000

TAMPA -- Dana Blackston brought breakfast to his wife of 31 years Tuesday as she began her work day at Idlewild Baptist Church, then cheerfully told her goodbye.

"I told him I loved him," Jeanne Blackston said, "then he drove out, and then the accident happened."

Dana Blackston pulled out of the church's driveway at 1515 W Bearss Ave. into the path of a pickup truck. Moments later, Jeanne Blackston was back at her husband's side, facing an awful truth.

"I just knew when I saw him, he was gone."

Hillsborough sheriff's deputies said Blackston, 52 of Tampa, a civilian employee at the Sheriff's Office, entered Bearss shortly before 9 a.m. when he was hit by a westbound 1995 Dodge Dakota pickup truck driven by 16-year-old Wesley Davies of Tampa.

The Dodge struck Blackston's 1993 Mercury Tracer squarely in the driver's side door, said sheriff's spokesman Rod Reder, fatally injuring Blackston.

Neither Davies nor his passenger, 16-year-old Rebecca Ledbetter of Tampa, were wearing seat belts, Reder said, and both suffered minor facial injuries after hitting the windshield of the truck. The two Gaither High School students were treated at University Community Hospital and released.

The impact sent Blackston's car into the eastbound lanes of Bearss, Reder said, where three cars collided while trying to avoid Blackston. One driver was treated for minor injuries.

Inside the church, Jeanne Blackston was preparing an Easter party for children at the day-care center where she works when someone told her there had been a crash out front. Concerned that a child's parent might be involved, she hurried to the scene, Blackston said later Tuesday, and cried out when she saw her husband's crumpled car.

Her first reaction was anger, Blackston said, because no one was helping her husband. Realizing he was dead, she said, "I went and touched him and told him I loved him."

Dana Blackston had battled brain cancer eight years ago, his wife said, and had overcome surgeries, chemotherapy and radiation treatments to enjoy the main loves of his life: his family, including two grown children and grandchildren, his faith, fishing and gardening.

At the time he was diagnosed with cancer, Jeanne Blackston said, doctors gave her husband only six months to live.

Over the next eight years, he rarely missed work at the maintainance division of the Hillsborough Sheriff's Office, where fellow employees remembered him as a hard worker and good person.

"He was a nice, kind man," said supervisor Fran Baryza.

After his illness, Jeanne Blackston said, her husband had a new appreciation for life and would share his religious views with anyone.

"He would always tell them, "Hey, I'm not supposed to be here,' " she said.

"But God put me here for a purpose. And that's why I'm talking to you."

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