The death this weekend of our dear friend and Atlanta icon Capt. Herb Emory shocked us all.

According to the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, Emory stopped to help at a car accident on South Burnt Hickory Road when he suddenly fell ill. He was transported to WellStar Douglas Hospital where he later died.

Visitation for will be Tuesday at the Jones-Wynn Funeral Home in Douglasville at 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. and again at 7:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m.  The funeral will be private, but there will be a Celebration of Life and Memorial Service for Captain Herb which will be open to all the public.  Details on that event are forthcoming.
 
Emory had been with WSB Radio and Channel 2 Action News since 1991 and served as an Alanta traffic reporter since 1971.
 
Emory watched over the interstates during the week and hosted special traffic and NASCAR broadcast programs with his wife, Karen Emory.
 
Captain Herb hosted and produced the WSB Speed Shop auto racing from 1993 until 2011.

Mark McKay  will be in the Skycopter this morning.  "Smilin' Mark" has been a WSB traffic reporter since 2001 and told the AJC that Captain Herb routinely worked for hours in his home basement, equipped with scanners and radios, to prepare for his traffic reports, which began at 4:30 a.m. and continued up to the time he would leave for his Skycopter rendezvous. Even his car was equipped with scanners.

 Doug Turnbull told the AJC that Capt. Herb meant everything to coverage of Atlanta traffic.   "If it weren't for him, we wouldn't have the coverage that we have because he insisted on the importance of the relationship with the authorities."

Arum, who has been with WSB since 1997, said Emory taught him all he knows about radio. "Without him, I wouldn't have a career. I owe everything to him."
 
Emory previously was a News/Traffic reporter from 1978 through 1991 with WQXI-AM, 94Q-Star 94, Georgia Network News. Emory said he earned the title of captain when before his first broadcast on WSB, the manager told him to introduce himself as Colonel Herb Emory. After figuring out that it was too hard to say, he was given the name Captain Herb Emory instead.
 
He was inducted into the Georgia Radio Hall of Fame in 2008 and received the inaugural Excellence in Motorsports Journalism Award in 2012.
 
Emory moved to Atlanta in 1971 from his home in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.
 
Emory's father was a volunteer pit crew member for Ralph Earnhardt, Dale Sr.'s dad, in the 1960s.