Hundreds Write in Roadside Book Left in Remembrance of Deceased

Ten miles this side of Sterling City, just before the Tom Green County line, lies what seems to be an ordinary picnic area with a grill, table and awning. A wide open space with distant west Texas “mountains” extends beyond the stop in every direction, cut through the center by highway 87.

Countless cars, trucks, bikers and travelers break at the picnic area each year, many leaving behind a record of their visit and encouraging words to an individual they’ve never met, in a small book stashed in a plastic box attached the fence of the adjacent property line.

“Ride with the wind”, “rest in peace” and comments about the roadside memorial have filled the pages of one book so far since Teri Rodgers set up the site in 2010 in remembrance of her best friend, Johnny Knittel, and book two has already received a number of signatures and commentary.

The memorial is set up behind the fence separating the picnic area from private property on land owned by Knittel’s son’s in-laws. A wooden sign detailing Knittel’s story, crosses, flowers, bells and other items hang from the fence or are planted in the ground by family friends and strangers.

“Johnny was an awesome guy,” Rodgers said. “He had worked for many years for WTU and was injured on the job and that injury progressed into a neurological thing that was requiring lots of treatment and he suffered lots of pain.

“When he died, he was cremated and the ashes were kept by his family. He was my best friend, so…he was a biker, he had a lot of biker friends, so [it’s] just a place where his family and friends could stop,” she said. “He was forever stopping at that little picnic area and calling people, so it’s just kind a familiar place and a place we just stop and remember him.”

Rodgers, who currently lives in Big Spring but still owns a house in San Angelo, stops by the memorial every three weeks or so, collecting the thoughts and passages of passersby who come from all over the nation.

“[There are] a few that know him, but I would say the majority are strangers,” she said of those that write in the book. “They will just comment on the memorial and a lot of “rest in peace” or “ride with the wind”. They’ve actually been from all over the country and I think in that first book there was one from Australia.”

Rodgers met Knittel through his ex-wife, Candy Wolfe, when the two worked together decades ago. The trio quickly became close friends, even after the couple divorced.

“What means the most to me is what our kids wrote,” Wolfe said. “The people that knew him knew that he was a really funny guy and he had a heart of gold.”

Wolfe explained that Knittel had always been a huge Harley fan that lived to ride, and when his health began to deteriorate he constantly had pain in his legs that made it difficult to ride. Knittel underwent an operation that helped eased the pain and continued to ride when he could, even though when he’d come back he’d be thoroughly exhausted from the tour.

“That was what he lived for—his kids and just to be on his bike and go,” Wolfe said.

Knittle and Wolfe raised three children together, sons Michael and Chris, and daughter Sterling. Sterling Kelly has held onto her father’s ashes over the past several years, and visits the memorial site frequently to remember her father.

“I go pretty often,” Kelly said.  “It’s nice to see that people care and you’re not alone. [People write] just heartfelt things that [show they care]. I go out there on his birthday and just meaningful days when you don’t feel like you have a place to go. I talk to him and just get things out in the open in an open space.”

Kelly said she took her father’s ashes with her to the memorial site once to “make it feel whole”, and has been considering where to spread the ashes with her brothers for the past few years.

One idea was to make a trip to the east coast—a dream she says her father often spoke of, stating, he said, “whenever I get well enough I’m going to take that trip.”

If she’s able to plan the trip with her brothers, she might like to spread the ashes along the way, she said.

Johnny Knittel died in October 2009 in Midland, Wolfe said. He was staying with his mother at the time and was planning on returning to San Angelo shortly before he died.

“He always considered San Angelo his home,” Wolfe said.

Since the picnic area was one of his frequent stops on trips to and from the city, Rodgers thought it would be the optimal place to set up a memorial. She says maintaining the site and reading the comments is a way to offer a tribute to her best friend of 25 years, and is moved by the words of strangers left on the pages of the books.

“There was one [from an artist]that said he would do a portrait of Johnny,” she said. “I would like to contact him and get that for his daughter or for his granddaughter that he wasn’t able to meet.”

Johnny Knittel was 52 years old when he died.. His memorial stands as one of many displayed throughout the area, all of which tell their own unique story and that are maintained by families and friends of the deceased. 

“I just think it’s an awesome tribute to a guy that was very special to me,” Rodgers said.

“We still think of him every day and miss him,” Wolfe added. “We miss his funniness and his smile.”  

Knittel's memorial is somewhat unique due to the thought and maintenance behind it, and falls into a sort of loophole in state laws that govern how memorials may be set up. To see how the state regulates memorial sites, check out Matt's article.