In a city that’s elevated the traffic jam to high art, Herb Emory exhibited a clear lack of appreciation for the stuff.
Still, expect major, mournful backups Tuesday around the Jones-Wynn Funeral Home in Douglasville. That’s where a first visitation for Emory, the iconic WSB radio traffic reporter who died Saturday, will be held from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., followed by a second one from 7 p.m. until 9 p.m.
Pretty much the entire metro area will be there, in spirit if not actually in person, judging by the prolonged outpouring of grief that’s accompanied news of Emory’s unexpected passing at age 61. Maybe it speaks to the way traffic defines and dictates life around here that the voice we all knew and respected belonged to the “traffic guy.”
Maybe it had just as much to do with who that “traffic guy” was.
“He was an extraordinary individual,” Gov. Nathan Deal said Monday about Emory, aka “Captain Herb,” who was as omnipresent in the charitable arena as he was on the radio airwaves here for some 40 years, the last 22 at WSB.
Deal expressed support for a plan to name the new Georgia 400 “flyovers” for Emory; ultimately the decision will be up to state lawmakers or the Department of Transportation, but Deal was confident both would be willing to name this major traffic problem fix for the man who dedicated himself to finding and fixing the area’s traffic problems on a daily basis.
“He’s going to be missed,” Deal said. “He is everything in person that you would expect him to be listening to him over the airways.”
He seemed to be everywhere, that's for sure. Working what appeared to be a punishing, split morning and afternoon rush hour schedule, Emory was that rare steadying presence amid the commuting madness. Always unruffled. Always nearby whenever we needed him:
Dishing out sassy quips and savvy driving tips while hovering over Spaghetti Junction or the Downtown Connector in his “traffic chopper.” Stopping to help out at the scene of a car accident near his Douglasville home on Saturday afternoon, not long after which he suffered a fatal heart attack.
Indeed, it somehow feels appropriate that the break in Tuesday’s visitation schedule comes right at the height of evening rush hour. After all, that’s when Captain Herb could be counted on to watch over us.
“Capt. Herb Emory has always been a reliable source of not only traffic information, but trust,” Luke Echols of Lilburn wrote on the online guest book for Emory on Monday. “We’d all get thru rush okay.”
Whenever and wherever “rush” turned out to be.
“I knew he would be on the air and help me get home,” Joyce Edwards of Atlanta wrote about that day-into-night in late January when she and thousands of others were trapped in their cars on icy roads. “(I) felt safer knowing he was looking out for me.”
By Monday evening, some 550 people from Acworth to Lawrenceville to Ellenwood to Hampton had signed the guest book on ajc.com. Meanwhile, tributes continued to pour in from the people who knew Emory well, including his colleagues at WSB radio who devoted an hour of airtime on Monday to a round-table discussion of the man they credited with showing a highly generous spirit on and off the air.
“Without him, I wouldn’t have a career,” WSB traffic reporter Mark Arum said of Emory, who held an annual Toys for Tots fundraiser and made 83 personal appearances for charity in 2013. “I owe everything to him.”
Yet the most moving tributes may have come from all the people who didn’t know Emory, but felt like they did. His was the first voice they heard when they turned on the car radio in the morning or the only one they trusted to consult on the way out of the work parking lot at night.
His was the last voice they expected not to be there anymore.
“Your voice was ATLANTA,” wrote Saundra Flanagan of Stone Mountain. “You will be sorely missed.”
About the Author
