Wesley E. Adams was born in Truman, Arkansas in 1960 to Loyd and Mary Adams. He lived in Bay, Arkansas all his life until he married. Wesley married the love of his life, Zelda, on January 1, 1979, and they had a very wonderful almost 43 years together. They started a family together, having two girls, Jennivy and little Zelda. Wesley worked as a farmer for many years and then went to being a “water man,” as his children called him. Wesley became a dedicated volunteer firefighter in 1986. He started at the Walnut Ridge Fire Department and then moved to the Sedgwick Volunteer Fire Department, where he became chief. Wesley loved his wife, kids, grandkids, church family, fire department family, and all his friends. He loved helping people out with anything and everything, from building stuff to working on automobiles. Wesley really loved hauling the equipment for the gospel singing group Hearts Desires, from setting it all up and running the sound to taking it all down. It was his passion, other than the fire department.
Wesley had such a wonderful passion for helping people that he would stop most of the time for anything. I remember one time that Wesley and I, along with our daughter, Zelda, and her baby girl were coming back from Jonesboro, and a car wrecked in front of us. Wesley stopped and said, “I got to help.” We said OK. Wesley got out and did what he was trained to do. Our daughter got out and stood by our car with wipes and hand sanitizer so he or anyone else that helped could clean their hands off if needed. Wesley told me one time that he stomped the fire on the side of the road out with his foot.
Wesley may not have finished school or even gone to college, but he taught himself everything he needed to know from working on cars and trucks and even farm equipment. He went to different weekend classes for water and wastewater and got certificates for it. He used to say he could run the whole plant if he wanted to, and the truth was, he could have. Wesley had classes at the fire department to teach the firefighters first aid and CPR and anything else that they needed to learn to be the best that they could be.
Wesley lost his life doing the one thing that he loved, and that was helping people. Wesley and his firefighters had just cleaned up after a three-vehicle wreck and were trying to turn the fire truck around. This is when a car didn’t stop in time and hit him. His injures were so bad that he lost his life.
