Newlywed Bride's Life Ends Just Minutes After Her Vows

Jana Miles-Burnett was ready for her happily ever after. The 40-year-old Illinois bride had just vowed to have and to hold William Burnett, for better or worse.

They wed Saturday night in a park in Buckner, a small town in southern Illinois.

With their family and friends gathering three miles down the road for the reception, the worst would come without warning and ever so fast just minutes later.

On their way to the reception astride Burnett’s motorcycle, a deer leapt onto the country highway into Burnett’s path. He struck the deer, crashed the bike, and 40-year-old newlywed bride Jana Miles-Burnett, who’d recently found love, lost her life.

Burnett, 31, hit the deer around 7 o’clock, just a half hour after their ceremony began. A mother of two, Miles-Burnett had divorced and endured years of heartache. Until she met William Burnett. He made her so happy. They made each other happy. They knew quickly they wanted to tie the knot, her daughter told the local paper.

A November wedding in the park offered the perfect place to join their lives together.

“The wedding was filled with the most laughter I’d ever seen in my life,” her daughter, Sara Smillie, 22, told the Southern Illinoisan. “I hadn’t seen her that happy in a long time.”

Her son-in-law, Khole Smillie, called her “a true inspiration and a loving soul.”

The bride wore a cream-colored tea length wedding dress. As she wrapped her arms around her husband astride the motorcycle, wedding guests cheered. Several riding behind the bride and groom saw the accident.

“There were three or four motorcycles together and William tried to swerve and did everything he could,” Khole Smille told Inside Edition. “There’s some things you cannot control. Deer were going crazy that night. It’s mating season and it’s a rural road.”

The groom suffered minor physical injuries. But emotionally, “every hour or so he breaks down,” Smillie said.

EMTs sped the bride to the local hospital, but at 8:04 p.m. Jana Miles-Burnett was pronounced dead.

A 911 dispatcher for the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department, she handled emergencies and problems every day as part of her job. And yet, she remained a bright light for those around her.

“I swear I could be in the worst of moods and that woman was bubbly, goofy, she would do anything silly to make you laugh,” childhood friend and coworker, Annabelle Lea Shukites, told the Southern Illinoisan. “It’s hard to see someone finally happy in their life and it’s gone so fast.”

Survived by her new husband, her mom, dad and a sister, her daughter Sara and her 14-year-old son Cody, Jana Miles-Burnett, of Whittington, will be laid to rest on Thursday.

GoFundMe

Her son-in-law set up a GoFundMe account to cover funeral expenses. “I felt like one small token of love I could show to the family in return for what they have shown me is to create this GoFundMe account. This account and all donations will go directly into paying for the funeral at Hobbs Johnson Funeral Home in Benton,” he wrote.