Posted on Tue, Nov. 20, 2007

By Kurt Knapek - The Sun News

LONGS --

David Carlson clutched a photo of his wife, glanced at it and cracked a smile.

"That's her ... always smiling," he said Monday.

Debra Carlson, 43, of Longs, died Friday from injuries she suffered in a motorcycle crash Nov. 11 on S.C. 90 near Nixons Crossroads.

A memorial service will be from 2 to 3:30 p.m. today at Lee Memorial Chapel in Little River and is open to the public.

On Sunday night, nearly 40 people attended a candlelight vigil for Carlson at Ricky's Dockside in Little River.

Like her husband, those who knew Debra Carlson remember she always had a smile on her face.

"Bubbly, very outgoing, so friendly," said Mechelle Taylor of Longs, a friend of Carlson's and fellow motorcycle enthusiast for three years. "She just lit up a room."

The S.C. Highway Patrol has not completed its report on the incident, said Lance Cpl. Sonny Collins. David Carlson, who was driving the motorcycle at the time of the crash, said he and his wife were on their way to visit friends whose son recently died in an automobile wreck.

"It was like the guy waited there for me to pull out, though I know that wasn't the case," David Carlson said. "I locked both brakes up. We just T-boned him."

He said he was not wearing a helmet.

"She was wearing a helmet. ... That's the ironic thing."

South Carolina does not require motorcycle riders 21 and older to wear helmets.

Debra Carlson was taken to Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. She was taken off life support Friday.

"It was just time to let go," David Carlson said.

He also was injured in the crash and had surgery last week at MUSC to repair a fractured pelvis.

Carlson remembered his wife as a "lover of wildlife, animals and motorcycles." She used to work as a dental assistant. He said the pair "did everything together," including a 27-day, 6,500-mile trip across the United States in 2004.

"Our hobbies were each other," Carlson said.

In 1999, the Carlsons bought a condominium on the Grand Strand, which they visited four or five times a year. In October 2005, three years after David Carlson retired as a sheriff's deputy in New York, they moved here for good, buying a house in Longs.

"She loved it. ... It was the only way I could get her to move down here," Carlson said. "This was going to be it for us."

Contact KURT KNAPEK at 626-0258 or kknapek@thesunnews.com.