news-record.com

GREENSBORO — When Landis Cox Best moved three doors down from Corinne Stickley in Irving Park in fifth grade, she met one of her best friends for life.

“She was a lot of fun — full of life, full of energy,” said Best, now a New York attorney. “Just someone who was always looking for the positive.”

Best still was digesting the news of her friend’s death in an airplane crash in New Jersey earlier this week. The Page High graduate, now Corinne Buckalew, died with husband Jeff, who was piloting the plane, and children Jackson and Meriwether. A colleague of Jeff Buckalew’s also died when the single-engine plane crashed on a New Jersey highway.

Corinne Buckalew’s parents, who live in Greensboro, have declined to comment through a friend. Dr. Vardaman Buckalew, who is Jeff’s father and lives in Winston-Salem, told The Associated Press he is devastated and called his son “a wonderful guy.”

Funeral arrangements are incomplete.

Best and her friend together attended Irving Park Elementary, Aycock Middle and Page.

Buckalew would go on to earn a degree in art from Virginia Commonwealth University and a master’s degree in education from UNCG in 1994.

Best recalls a lifetime of memories: ice skating at the old Carolina Circle Mall; Corinne telling her about Jeff, whom she called the love of her life; her friend’s great joy at discovering she was going to be a mother.

“She was so happy,” said Best, also a bridesmaid in their wedding at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church.

Both friends would wind up in New York, where Buckalew taught art to children. She was also the sole proprietor of Corinne Buckalew Designs.

Just this year, the Buckalews bought a house in Charlottesville, Va., to be closer to their parents.

“She really was a person who took advantage of her time here,” Best said. “She wasn’t the kind of person who said. 'Oh, let’s wait and save this for a rainy day.’ She would take her mom on trips and they would get together for a weekend. She didn’t wait to do those things when it was more convenient.”

Contact Nancy McLaughlin at 373-7049 or nancy.mclaughlin@news-record.com