‘They were just good people’: Friend remembers Chapmanville men killed in helicopter crash

CHAPMANVILLE, W.Va. (WSAZ) - Jim Baisden said his friends, Marvin Bledsoe and Jack Collins, have been with him through all the moments that make life special.

“[Marvin], we met in first grade, I went through 12 years of school with him. Good friend, help you if he could, mind his own business,” he recalled.

“Jack, we met probably 40 years ago. We rode horses together, rode motorcycles together. Good friends, good people.”

Collins and Bledsoe were both killed in a helicopter crash in Logan County last week. The crash took the lives of all six people on board.

“We had heard about the crash but we didn’t dream it’d effect us like this, because [they’re] two of my good friends,” he said.

“Grown men ain’t supposed to cry, but I loved them both and they’re gone just like that. I miss ‘em.”

Baisden said he recently saw both of his friends, recalling Collins offered his generator during power outages in Chapmanville earlier this month.

Baisden said he saw Bledsoe, who most people called “Bosco”, earlier in the day last Wednesday.

“He said he was waiting to go ride that Huey, wanted to do it for a long time. Never dreamed it would be the last time I’d see him, either one of them,” he said.

“You better be ready for the Good Lord because you could meet him in two seconds.”

Baisden said his friends made up what was good about Chapmanville.

“They would help anybody, and it didn’t matter who you were, what color you were, they would help anyone,” he said.

“They were just good people and good people’s good people.”

Baisden said he’ll honor his friends memory in the same way they rode motorcycles: enjoying the ride of life.

“We’d just get together when it was convenient and ride into the breaks or just anywhere. But it’s not about where you’re going, it’s who you’re going with,” he said.

“When you got somebody you love, tell ‘em, because you might not get another chance.”

Information for Jack Collins’ funeral arrangement can be found here. Click here for Marvin Bledsoe’s arrangements.