JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Friends and family are remembering a local wife, mother and teacher who collapsed in front of her students and later died.
Mildretta Chapple taught at Biltmore Elementary School and was just getting to know her new class at the time of the tragedy.
According to a Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office report said, Chapple had high blood pressure, but a family spokesperson said the teacher wasn’t feeling bad at all this week.
JSO said Chapple was found in her classroom without a pulse Tuesday.
“I’m going to miss the daily phone calls, I could call her at any time,” said Angela Wright.
Wright and Sadie Milliner-Smith’s friendship with Chapple started over a decade ago.
“We started working together about 12 years ago,” Milliner-Smith said.
The three educators eventually became friends, travel partners and godparents to each other’s kids.
“I’m just going to miss … her,” said Wright.
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Now Wright and Milliner-Smith are helping plan Chapple’s daughter’s sweet 16 after her untimely death.
“I know that our friend is in heaven and smiling and would have been upset if we didn’t go through with her plans,” Milliner-Smith said.
JSO said Chapple collapsed in front of her students Tuesday and another teacher tried to perform CPR after not finding a pulse.
Chapple was 43 and leaves behind a husband and two kids
“They’re just existing, just going day by day,” said Chapple’s mother-in-law Constance Devaughn.
Devaughn said Chapple was a dedicated teacher.
“Her students meant everything to her, an opportunity for her to teach them, for them to learn,” Devaughn said.
Duval County Public Schools said the district is working to place a new teacher in Chapple’s class.
A spokesperson also said the district sent specialists to Biltmore Elementary School to help students cope with this tragedy.
Chapple's family released the following information about her viewing and funeral:
Wake/Viewing will be held at T.S. Warden, 4315 Main Street N., Jacksonville, 32206, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Friday, August 19.
Funeral Service: Emmanuel Missionary Baptist Church, 2407 Rev S L Badger Jr Creek, Jacksonville, 32209, at 12 p.m. on Saturday, August 20.
The family asks that all non-immediate family members meet at the church. Anyone wishing to send flowers is asked to send those to the church.