Parents of UGA student who saved a life reflect on daughter’s heroics a year later

One year ago this weekend, Bud and Lauren Jones were spending a quiet Friday evening at home watching television.

As a parent, your heart sinks whenever your child is on a road trip… and the phone rings.

  It was their daughter, Clarke, who was a freshman at the University of Georgia. She and four of her sorority sisters were headed to Savannah for the St. Patrick’s Day parade the next day.

“She started crying, and I thought it was going to be some sort of drama,’’ Bud said.

There was drama all right, just not the teenage daughter variety.

“By the time she told the story, we all were crying,” Bud said.

Clarke and her friends had called their families to let them know they were OK while still trying to process their emotions after the events of that afternoon. 

They were cold. Their clothes were wet. Their hands were shaking. Clarke was trembling so badly she asked one of her friends to take over driving her Mazda CX-5.

“They were overwhelmed and elated at the same time,’’ Lauren said. “It was starting to sink in how terrifying it had been and to realize how close that young boy was to not making it. All the emotions were coming from the fear and joy of   saving him.’’

Clarke was driving on a highway she had never traveled and going over a bridge she had never crossed. After taking a slight detour near Augusta for lunch, her GPS had re-routed them to the south.

 She was with four friends she had only known for eight months. In May 2023, she graduated from Macon’s Stratford Academy, where she was an honor student, a cheerleader captain and a member of the homecoming court.  

She headed to Athens for sorority rush the month after she turned 18 years old. She pledged Kappa Alpha Theta and became fast friends with four other freshmen in her pledge class — Molly McCollum (Birmingham, Alabama), Kaitlyn Iannace (Raleigh, North Carolina), Eleanor Cart (Richmond, Virginia) and Jane McArdle (Charlotte, North Carolina).

The five young women were hailed as heroes after rescuing a mother and her two children when the family’s SUV veered off the road near a bridge in Burke County. 

After witnessing the accident, the young women jumped into the dark, murky waters of Brier Creek and helped the family to safety. The vehicle’s front windshield was broken, and the mother managed to climb out. Her 8-year-old son was able to get his head above water through a passenger window. The UGA students took turns holding the heavy door open while the mother desperately tried to pull her 4-year-old son from the backseat.

  It was Clarke — the tiny little girl who used to fret over her multiplication tables in the third grade — that channeled the greatest superpower. 

She had spent the summer before her senior year of high school as a lifeguard at Idle Hour Club. She mostly slapped band-aids on skinned knees and blew her whistle to keep kids from running at the pool.

She had been certified in CPR through the Red Cross. She had never used it until she performed it on the boy, who was unresponsive after being underwater for several minutes.

Realizing every second mattered and that there wasn’t time to swim to shore, Clarke sat on top of a tire on the capsized SUV and began trying to revive the child, who was the same age as one of her cousins.

  After about a minute and a half, the child opened his mouth and started crying. As the sorority sisters watched the mother hug him, they all began crying, too.  

 “They saved a life,’’ Lauren said. “It still gives me chills a year later to say that out loud. These five girls, without any worry about themselves, jumped into that river. They didn’t pull out their phones and start recording. They went into action.

“I’ve had feedback from people who said it brought them such a nice sense of this younger generation. Oftentimes, I think people think they are self-absorbed. But these girls didn’t think of themselves.’’

Clarke and her friends later discussed their experience and agreed to keep a low profile. When they granted an interview with the student newspaper, The Red & Black, other media outlets began requesting interviews.

“It was right on the heels of the Laken Riley murder (February 22) that devastated Athens,’’ Lauren said. “They felt like the campus needed something positive.’’

The next nine months were a whirlwind. The young women were interviewed by Atlanta television stations. They received a letter of commendation from UGA President Jere Morehead. They were invited to the state capitol to meet with Gov. Brian Kemp. Clarke was made an honorary deputy by the Burke County Sheriff’s office.

 They were featured in “People” magazine. They appeared on “Good Morning, America’’ and Fox News. They were invited to New York to be guests on NBC’s “The Kelly Clarkston Show.” They were interviewed for the podcast “Sibling Revelry,” with Kate and Oliver Hudson.

In October, they participated in the “Dawg Walk” before the Georgia-Auburn football game. They were recognized on the field at Sanford Stadium, where they received a standing ovation. In November, they were awarded the national Eugenia Washington Founders Medal for Heroism by the Daughters of the American Revolution.

They even named the county where Athens is located after Clarke. Not really, but it’s a nice thought.

“One of my good friends from high school calls me and always wants to know what the celebrity is up to,’’ Bud said, laughing. “He asks how the rock star doing.’’

Clarke won’t turn 20 for another four months. And while she is wise beyond her years, her mother said it may take an accumulation of life experiences — maybe when she becomes a mother herself —  to fully grasp that a child is alive today because of her bravery.

 Who knows? The youngster may grow up to be President. Or find a cure for cancer. Or hit a walk-off home run to win the World Series.  Or simply become a solid citizen from a small community in east Georgia who saves the life of someone else.

“I think one day she can step back and look at it,’’ Lauren said. “This little kid is still here with his mom and his big brother.’’

  Ed Grisamore is proud of plenty of things, and among them is that Clarke Jones was one of his journalism students at Stratford Academy.