Stunned colleagues remembered John A. Thomason as a professional on Sunday, a day after the Warren County coroner’s death in a fiery single-car crash on U.S. 61 South.

&#8220He always tried to make you laugh, no matter how down you were,” said Tiffany Luke, crime scene investigator for the Warren County Sheriff’s Department. &#8220When my mother-in-law and maternal grandmother passed away, the compassion he showed my family came from his heart. It wasn’t his job. I feel truly truly blessed to have known him.”

A memorial service for Thomason is scheduled for 11 a.m. Tuesday at the chapel of Fisher Funeral Home on Cherry Street. Visitation will begin at 9 a.m.

Deputy Coroner Larry Chisley said an autopsy had been performed Sunday at Mississippi Mortuary Services in Pearl. It determined Thomason died of trauma suffered in the crash, not of the subsequent fire.

Chisley, an owner of Dillon-Chisley Funeral Home, had been on duty and was at the scene of earlier fatal accident on Glass Road Saturday.

Thomason was en route there from Frank J. Fisher Funeral Home, where he was director, to pick up the body from that wreck when he lost control of the funeral home Suburban.

&#8220I was devastated because once I saw the vehicle upon arriving at the scene, seeing the vehicle before the flames were put out, I guess you could say I recognized that vehicle,” said Chisley, summoned from Glass Road to the scene where his friend and mentor died.

&#8220John was a true friend,” said Chisley, who is now acting coroner. &#8220Our friendship goes way back – in fact, he was one of my groomsmen when I was married 18 years ago. His death is just a complete shock.”

At the Glass Road scene, Fermin Rodriguez, 39, 68 Gastrell Lane, had been killed when a tree limb fell and crushed the Honda Accord in which he was a passenger around 8:30 p.m., said Deputy Sheriff Anthony Walker.

Rodriguez’ body was also delivered to Mississippi Mortuary Services, where it was to be prepared for shipment to his home in Mexico.

The driver of that Accord, Manuel Medina, 38, who had the same address as Rodriguez, ran from the mangled vehicle to his home a few hundred yards away, from which he was taken to River Region Medical Center. Warren County Undersheriff Jeff Riggs said no charges against Medina were expected.

Thomason was a native of Vicksburg and was a licensed embalmer and funeral director.

He worked with Charles Riles during the years of what is now Fisher Funeral Home was Fisher-Riles. Riles sold the Cherry Street business in 1995, and Thomason had managed it since.

&#8220He and I spent more time together as funeral personnel on calls than some people spend with their families,” Riles said. &#8220We had our differences, but those were being repaired. You’re talking about a professional relationship that goes back 25 or 30 years. My heart goes out to his family because it’s a genuine tragedy.”

Thomason, 48, had also spent several years at Glenwood Funeral Home in the 1970s, early in his career.

&#8220I knew him really well. He was a really good guy and he was an excellent coroner,” said Doug Huskey, a Glenwood funeral director. &#8220He was always really kind when we went out on calls with him.”

&#8220He was a very likable guy,” said Bill Mobley Sr., a funeral director and Glenwood’s president.

In Mississippi, coroners are elected in each of the 82 counties and serve four-year terms in the part-time roles. They investigate deaths that result from trauma and file official reports on the cause and manner.

Thomason, host for a meeting of the state coroners’ association here in May, was alone in the funeral home vehicle around 9:30 p.m. when it left the four-lane road.

Witnesses said it hit a curb, flipped, hit and ruptured above-ground valves on a natural gas line and burst into flames, said Vicksburg Police Patrolman Leonce Young.

&#8220It was ignited when the car struck it, just from the force of impact,” said Mark Ettinger, deputy chief for the Vicksburg Fire Department.

The crash took down a utility pole that caused power outages along the east side of U.S. 61 South in the subdivisions of Warrenton Heights, Fox Run and Cottonwood and parts of Redbone Road. Traffic on the four-lane highway was detoured from Belva Drive to Redbone Road until about 2:15 a.m., Ettinger said. The fire was extinguished around 1 a.m.

Thomason is survived by his wife, LaDonna, and two children, Shannon and John A. Thomason IV. He also had an infant granddaughter.

His first bid for coroner, in 1983, was unsuccessful, but he was elected coroner in a runoff of a special election in 2000 to replace L.W. &#8220Bump” Callaway, who left the post to become county emergency management director. Thomason was re-elected in 2003 for a term to expire in December 2007.

District 1 Supervisor David McDonald said the Warren County Board of Supervisors now will likely appoint an interim coroner and add the position to judicial ballots already scheduled for this November.

Downpours of rain that measured nearly 4 inches in some areas between about 5 and 8 p.m. Saturday caused about a half a dozen other, less-serious wrecks around the county – including one that resulted in a smashed Vicksburg police cruiser on Interstate 20. Flooding led to at least seven evacuations on Lane Street in Marcus Bottom, on Wabash Avenue near Sky Farm Avenue and on Hudson Street in Kings in north Vicksburg.