Versailles couple dies in plane crash
Funeral services set for Greg and Candy Wehr

Wanda English Burnett
Editor

A community is saddened from the loss of a Versailles couple, Gregory L. and Candace S. Wehr, who died when their plane went down Saturday night, January 21.

News spread fast about the well-known and liked couple on Sunday morning as reports began to roll in about the tragic plane crash that claimed both of their lives.

The Wehrs were traveling back to the Madison Municipal Airport from Chicago when for unknown reasons their 1968 single engine Cessna went down in a field in Jennings County. Police report the call came in about 8:41 p.m. to Jennings County Dispatch that a plane had crashed south of County Road 600 South. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the cause and say it could be several weeks before a determination is made.

Disbelief and sorrow were words used to describe feelings of people in the Versailles community and beyond when people found out about the Wehrs. “They were wonderful people,” Roxanne Meyer told the Osgood Journal through her tears on Monday morning. She had taught sixth grade with Candy for 12 years at South Ripley Elementary School. “We are family,” she noted.

Meyer said her and Candy lived three miles from each other, taught together and were working together as national consultants for the Renaissance Learning Inc. company in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin, at the time of Candy’s death. “She was supposed to fly to Detroit on Sunday,” Meyer sadly noted of her dear friend of 27 years. Meyer told of the closeness of the company they work for and said all of the consultants were coming to Versailles from across the United States to pay their last respects to Candy and Greg.

The Wehrs loved to travel. They loved to fly. Greg had obtained his private pilot license in 2006 and the two thoroughly enjoyed being in the air and being together. Greg went on many of Candy’s business trips in the winter when he wasn’t busy with farming.

Greg and Candy were both 55. Greg was born in Batesville on March 8, 1956 the son of Arnold and Mary Lou Huneke Wehr. Candy was born at Batesville on May 9, 1956, the daughter of Hubert and Eva Fern Ricketts Jackson. The couple was married on June 17, 1978.

Survivors include their daughters: Dawn (Stephen) Powaga of Chicago, Holly Wehr of Greensburg, and Libby Wehr of Versailles.
The couple is survived by their parents, Greg’s brothers: Matt (Dee) Wehr of Greensburg and Curt (Michelle) Wehr of Batesville; sisters: Nan (Richard) Mazzei of Zionsville and Sandra (Jack) Laugle of Whiteland; Candy’s uncle, Dale Ricketts of Kentucky and her cousin Jason (Stacie) Ricketts of Georgetown.

Greg was a 1974 graduate of Batesville High School and attended Rose-Hulman at Terre Haute where he played basketball. He graduated from Purdue in 1978 with a degree in Agricultural Engineering. He farmed in the Versailles community for several years. He was a member of the Versailles Lions Club and served on the Board of Directors for the Southeastern Indiana REMC for 15 years where he currently served as the board’s vice-president. He was a former ISHAA basketball official and had served as a volunteer coach for the junior high girls at South Ripley.

Candy was a 1974 graduate of South Ripley High School and received her BS degree in Elementary Education at Indiana State in 1978 and later obtained her Master’s Degree. She was a member of the Delta Rho Chapter of Tri-Kappa and enjoyed gardening.

Both Greg and Candy were members of the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Olean.

Visitation will be held Thursday, January 26 from 3-8 p.m. at the Family Life Center of the Versailles Baptist Church. Funeral services will be held at the same location on Friday, January 27 at 10:30 a.m. with Pastor Robin Owen of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church at Crossroads officiating. Burial will be in the Tanglewood Cemetery. Memorials may be given to the Wehr Scholarship Fund in care of the Stratton-Karsteter Funeral Home, Versailles, who is handling the arrangements.

“She was a joy to work with...an excellent teacher, very caring,” noted Mark Collier, principal of South Ripley Elementary School. He said Candy was a wonderful teacher who touched the lives of everyone she met. His parting advice was this, “Don’t be afraid to say ‘I love you’ to people in your life. It might be the last time they hear it or you have a chance to say it.”

Dr. John Mehrle, superintendent at South Ripley, noted the staff had a meeting Monday morning with tears being shed for the loss of the couple and their family.