Franklin Woman Killed While Aiding Dog Remembered As 'Selfless,' 'Giving'

FRANKLIN, TN — Robbin Holland, the Franklin woman killed when she was hit by an SUV as she tried to aid a wounded dog, is being remembered as a "selfless" and "giving" woman.

Mrs. Holland, 60, was struck by an SUV after she pulled off Hillsboro Road in attempt to help a dog which had been hit by a car. Mrs. Holland was taken to Williamson Medical Center where she died. The dog did not survive, either. The 71-year-old Thompson's Station woman who was driving the SUV has not been charged.

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“The world has lost an angel. She was a phenomenal woman. She was vibrant in life, in every phase of it,” Williamson County Commissioner Matt Williams told WSMV. “Robbin epitomized that genuine, sincere kindness. It's only right that her final act, was an act of kindness."

For years, Mrs. Holland announced Franklin High School football games with FHS athletic director Jay Johnson. After she and her husband moved to Franklin with their three children in 1990,she jumped headlong into community involvement, her son Jared told The Tennessean.

“When my brother and sister and I graduated and went to college, I think it was a challenge for her,” he told the newspaper. “She had to find an outlet for all that energy.”

She joined Bethlehem United Methodist Church and its theater troupe. Johnny Peppers, who directed the first play Mrs. Holland acted in, said when he and his wife took in five foster children between the ages of nine weeks and 5-years-old, Mrs. Holland became the children's "substitute grandmother."

"She came in and supported us, read them stories, just because she wanted to.” Peppers told the newspaper. “No matter how much time she gave, she made it seem like it was easy for her, nothing was ever a burden for her to be there for other people.”

Mrs. Holland volunteered at Miriam's Promise, a pregnancy counseling and adoption services non-profit effort of the United Methodist Church, and worked at Hope Clinic, a crisis-pregnancy center.

“Our desks were right next to each other, so there were many times that I would come in and plop down and we would cry together and pray together and talk about life, and no matter what she always knew the right things to say. She’s one of the most godliest woman I’ve ever met in my life. Somebody that I truly want to be like,” Anna Lawrence, who worked alongside Mrs. Holland at Hope Clinic, told WKRN.

Funeral services for Mrs. Holland will be 1 p.m. Tuesday at Bethlehem United Methodist Church. Burial will follow the service at Williamson Memorial Gardens.

Memorial contributions may be made to Miriam’s Promise, 522 Russell St., Nashville, TN, 37206.