Baylee Johnson died Aug. 31, days after her hair became caught in a go-kart sprocket during an Aug. 23 incident in Sumter County. She was 24.
The death has turned a wrenching accident into a funeral week for a family now grieving Johnson and the baby boy they had already named Johnny. A visitation is set for Friday from 5-7 p.m. at Elmore-Cannon-Stephens Funeral Home in Sumter, and a celebration of life is planned for Saturday at 10 a.m. at Northside Memorial Baptist Church, where the public is invited to attend.
Robbie Baker said Johnson was taken to a hospital in Florence after the incident on Skinner Road in Sumter County. The family said she was 15 weeks pregnant when she was hurt, and that she and her boyfriend had just learned they were having a son.
Those details give the loss its full weight. Johnson’s family said she had just secured her dream job as a medical assistant at Prisma Health OB/GYN–Sumter, a line of work she was preparing to step into even as her own life was being pulled in a different direction by the injury.
Baker remembered her as “silly, spontaneous and completely carefree,” saying she would dance anywhere, sing as loudly as she wanted and never seem to care who was watching. She said Johnson “did not simply walk into a room; she brought life into it.”
What remains unanswered is how the incident on Skinner Road unfolded before her hair was caught in the sprocket. But the outcome is clear: Johnson did not recover from the injuries she suffered on Aug. 23, and the family is now asking for memorials in memory of Baylee and Johnny through the McLeod Health Foundation.
