Around 700 mourners gathered in Atlanta on Sunday to remember Sarah Jones, the camera assistant killed last month while working on Midnight Rider.
The emotional memorial for the 27-year-old was attended by friends, family and one of the people injured in the accident that killed Jones on the movie set.
John Strickland, a local reverend, read from the poem “Afterglow,” reciting the memorable line, “I’d like the tears of those who grieve to dry before the sun.”
He spoke of mortality and not putting off telling loved ones you care:
“When we’re young adults, we think we’ll live forever. But parents die. Friends die. Even children die. So tell the ones that you love that you love them.”
The memorial took place hours ahead of the 2014 Academy Awards, where a group had been petitioning to recognize Jones during its “In Memoriam” segment.
A Facebook and Twitter campaign also urged attendees to wear black ribbons in her honor; Jones was ultimately not included in the montage Sunday.
Strickland alluded to the Oscars during his remembrance, telling the crowd, “When the stars walk across the stage, it’s because of people like you.”
Union leader Bruce Doering also addressed the crowd with emotion.
Doering, executive director of IATSE Local 600, said there had been an outpouring of support from union members and people who knew Jones.
The IATSE will rename its scholarship to a son or daughter of a union member who shows interest in doing camera work the Sarah Elizabeth Jones Scholarship.
Jones tragically and shockingly died on February 20 when she was struck and killed by a train during preproduction on the Gregg Allman biopic Midnight Rider.
Doering said the Local 491 union was assisting in investigating the incident in Savannah, and that there will be a candlelight vigil held in Jones’ honor in L.A.
