By Staff
Melissa Cason, Franklin County Times
The Franklin County Archives received a unique donation earlier this week when a longtime resident of Russellville came across a piece of the wreckage that killed a beloved local doctor.
"I have a file in there on Dr. Spruell," Archive Director Chris Ozbirn said. "I am asked about our selection on Dr. Spruell all the time."
Dr. Hughes Spruell, a doctor in Russellville, was killed in an airplane crash in the 1950s. After the crash a young man, Dent Richardson, went to the crash site and found the Piper aircraft on the ground.
Richardson kept the piece of the plane, and recently gave it to a former classmate, Suzanne Langcuster, during a reunion. Langcuster's husband, Cecil, and she thought that it would make a great addition to the Franklin County Archives.
"Dr. Spruell was a legacy in this county, and he was a great man," Cecil said.
Ozbirn was grateful for the new addition, and agreed to find a place for the memento in the archives along with an eight by ten portrait of Spruell.
"Dr. Spruell must have been a wonderful individual because everyone who knew him remembers him very fondly," Ozbirn said.