HIT-RUN VICTIM WAS TO SEE TO ILL WIFE; `FAMILY MAN SAID HE’D REJOIN FRIENDS

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, January 3, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | Four Star B | NEWS | Page B03

Minutes before the new year was ushered in, Jarvis Stephenson told friends at the American Legion post that he was going home to check on his ill wife and that he would be back an hour later.
Stephenson, 39, would do neither.
A hit-and-run driver struck and fatally injured him as he crossed Forest Avenue outside the post, police said. He was pronounced dead at Englewood Hospital at 1:30 a.m. Tuesday.
Lt. Charles Dillon, commander of the Englewood Police Traffic Bureau, said Wednesday that the search for the driver of the car was continuing but declined to say whether investigators had a suspect in mind or a make on the car.
In another incident in which a car hit a pedestrian, Eric Foreman, 17, of Millen, Ga., was more fortunate. Foreman’s legs were fractured when he was struck by a northbound car as he attempted to cross Route 17 in Ramsey on Tuesday, police said.
He was in stable condition at University Hospital in Newark on Wednesday, a hospital spokesman said.
The motorist, Daniel E. Melehan, 53, of Baldwin Road, Saddle River, was not charged, police said.
Janice Rochester, a bartender at American Legion Post 58 in Englewood, said she had known Stephenson, an NJ Transit bus driver, for about 17 years. Stephenson had been helping her wash cocktail glasses and serve drinks, but was not drinking, Rochester said.
“Jarvis was in very good spirits; he was as happy as he could be,” Rochester said. “He talked about his daughter a lot. That was his heart. That was his love. He was very much a family man. His wife and his daughter were very special to him.”
Rochester, 43, of Hackensack, said Stephenson told her that his wife, Josie, was ill and that he was going to check on her.

Keywords: ENGLEWOOD; MOTOR VEHICLE; ACCIDENT; VICTIM; DEATH

ID: 17328474 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)


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