The roads leading to the Trenton Community Park were lined with telephone poles and mailboxes draped with red ribbons in remembrance of the Edgewood High School student who touched all those who knew her.
“Hallie was the happiest person that I knew,” said freshman classmate Lilie Day.
“As soon as someone met her, she made them laugh. She was energetic and the best kind of person out there.”
Day looked over the large crowd gathered to honor her memory and said “she had so many people supporting her … that are coming to support other people that knew her. It’s just really nice.”
Tim Smith, pastor of First Baptist Church of Trenton, knew Deaton and was among the speakers at the vigil.
“Hallie was in one word — selfless. She was always more concerned about others, their happiness and their well-being,” said Smith.
“She always wanted to make people smile and it was contagious too … she’d make someone smile and then everybody else would smile as well. She had a way and that was just her.”
Deaton was a passenger — along with three other teens — in a car that collided Tuesday afternoon with a pick-up truck.
The crash involved a total of seven Edgewood students in two vehicles, said Edgewood school officials.
“Three additional high school students were injured in the accident. Three passengers in a second vehicle are elementary students in the district,” stated school officials.
Deaton was taken by medical helicopter to Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton and later was pronounced dead.
According to 911 audio tapes obtained by the Journal-News Thursday, a number of drivers witnessed the collision on Trenton Oxford Road near Wehr Road in Wayne Twp.
One caller reported to dispatches - seconds after the crash - that he saw in his rear view mirror “a really bad wreck.”
Another caller reported the pick-up truck had rolled into an adjacent field after the collision “and the car hit a telephone pole.”
Katie Fulks, a long-time family friend, wasn’t surprised by the large turnout of mourners at the vigil.
“This means a lot to the family,” Fulks said of Deaton’s mother and family members who attended the event.
“They are very appreciative of the community coming out and supporting the family and for Hallie. It (her death) hurt a lot of people here in Trenton.”
“Hallie was a great person. Very loving and very outgoing and she loved to smile,” said Fulks, who also helped arrange a GoFundMe website to help the family cover funeral expenses.
As of Thursday evening, more than $12,000 of the site’s $25,000 goal had been raised.
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