Remembering Robyn Herring

On April 26, Homewood resident Robyn Herring was in a Jeep stopped at a redlight on Lakeshore Drive with her children and her boyfriend, listening to “Holy” by Justin Bieber and admiring the sunset, when a car fleeing the police crashed into oncoming traffic and ended her life.

Those who love Herring said she had a magnetic personality and was thoughtful, caring and loving. She moved into her house in Homewood about four years ago following a divorce, and she and three other families in the neighborhood became close friends.

“She was also a single parent, so we had a lot in common there,” said Tiffany Davis, who was one of Herring’s close neighborhood friends. “We would attend church together with and without our kids, talk about dating stuff, divorce stuff and fun stuff. She was the kind of friend who would plan a pedicure morning if she thought you might need the friend time.”

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the group of four would meet in the alleyway by their homes almost every day, Davis said. Herring was always looking for adventure, Davis said.

“She liked to ski and wanted to take her girls,” Davis said. “She always wanted to make sure they were getting to do fun things. She was really good at not letting them sit in front of the TV or a device. She would make them go play or have them filled up with craft projects. She wanted her girls to be happy, well-adjusted people with good values who loved and trusted God above all things.”

Another friend in the alley, Blake Rhodes, remembers the first snow day the group had together in the neighborhood.

“Living in the South, we didn’t have a sled on hand, so we grabbed a garbage can top,” Rhodes said. “She was one of the first ones to say, ‘I want to try it!’ So I videoed that and laughed playing that back over and over again of her sledding down our driveway into the street.”

Her boyfriend, John Holley, met Herring online a few months before her death. Although their time together was short, he said they both knew something was there. He described her as healthy in mind, body and spirit.

Herring was a nurse practitioner and worked in the heart transplant unit. Holley said Herring loved her job. Once, when the couple took a trip to Chattanooga, they met a younger man who had recently received a heart transplant.

“I could tell from the conversation that he wasn’t necessarily taking it seriously in terms of taking his medicine,” Holley said. “Robyn spoke to him as if she was his mother. She was telling him all he should do and how lucky he was to have a second chance. I think she viewed her heart transplant position as a really good opportunity to be impactful in people’s lives and to give them a second chance at life.”

Herring brought joy to everyone’s life and was loved, Rhodes said.

“She was always pushing herself and bettering herself,” Rhodes said. “She always encouraged me that way. She was constantly finding ways to be a better person, and that was infectious. If I had an idea about something, she was the first to say, ‘You should totally do that. You’d be great at that.’ She believed in other people, and she pushed herself and other people to be the best they could be.”

Herring had an oak tree in her backyard that she called her “God tree,” Holley said. In honor of Herring, the neighbors planted a tree in the median in the neighborhood. Holley said the group is working on getting a plaque created for the space as well.