I feel lucky that I am still in touch with friends from high school. Jeff Munson, Frank Paolo and John Gilmore were all at the Wednesday night Margaret Explosion show at the Little Theatre Café. Even Marty Schutt, owner of Schutt’s Apple Mill, was there but he didn’t realize it was me in the band until he was on the way out. Later that night Colin Pinkney emailed me that Whitney Schutt (no relation to Marty) had passed away.
Whitney was so cool they gave her a full page in the yearbook (click on the photo above). Frank sent me her newspaper death notice and it is fittingly poetic.
Update: Hwy. 20 crash victim identified
Ukiah Daily Journal Staff
Updated: 09/15/2011 11:59:36 PM PDT
The Hopland woman who died in a solo-vehicle crash on Highway 20 Tuesday night was identified Thursday as Whitney Schutt, 61.
Schutt was pronounced dead at the scene where her silver 1999 BMW convertible rolled over on the dirt shoulder of the highway, according to the California Highway Patrol.
She was driving west on Highway 20 just east of Potter Valley Road at about 8:20 p.m. when she allowed the car to leave the road for reasons still under investigation, according to the CHP. The car slid out of control on the dirt north of the road and overturned. Schutt wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, according to the CHP.
Drugs or alcohol are not believed to have been factors in the crash, which remains under investigation.