Family, friends and colleagues said goodbye to Lt. Garrett Stuart Presnell during a memorial service at Tom Johnson Rally Park on Tuesday.
The 28-year-old died last week at Forsyth Medical Center from COVID-19.
Presnell was a firefighter with the town of Black Mountain and worked part time at North Cove, Pleasant Gardens and Old Fort fire departments. He died after spending days hospitalized in Winston-Salem with the virus.
Presnell was president of the McDowell Fire & Rescue Association, as well as a member of Buncombe County Task Force 2 Urban Search and Rescue. He also volunteered as a lieutenant at Sugar Hill-Montford Cove Fire Department.
The Revs. Jimmy Upton, Jeffrey Parker and Chief Scottie Harris officiated the service, which was streamed live on Facebook Live via the McDowell County 911/Emergency Management Page and streamed on YouTube Live on the town of Black Mountain channel.
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Upton thanked members of the community for helping the family in their hour of need.
“There have been a lot of prayers prayed for this family and extended family,” he said.
Presnell was remembered as helpful, fun-loving and dedicated to his community.
Black Mountain Chief Scott Harris recalled Presnell as a teller of tales and a man of great generosity.
“He really wanted to help people,” Harris said. “He had one of the biggest hearts of anyone I ever met … a piece of him lives in us.”
Presnell was preceded in death by his father, Charles, and a brother, Levi Maltba.
Left to cherish is memory are his wife of five years, Kelsey Irene Presnell; his mother, Sherie Buchanan Presnell; maternal grandparents, Stuart and Eileen Buchanan; and his daughter to be born in September, Kora Eileen Presnell. Also surviving are two brothers, Corey Presnell (Lacey) and Douglas Lee Cooksey (Lirije); maternal mother and father-in-law, Ervin and Pam Smith; and niece, Carly Presnell.
Harris said baby Kora will have a lot of emergency services uncles looking out for her.
“She will have one of the biggest families ever known in God’s creation,” he said.