A woman who died Tuesday in a New Jersey plane crash was a member of the Payne-Howell family, associated with the T.H. Payne Co., Chattanooga's oldest retailer.
Corinne Stickley Buckalew was flying from Teterboro Airport in New Jersey to DeKalb Peachtree Airport outside Atlanta with her husband, two children and her husband's business partner when the plane crashed on the median of Interstate 287 in Morris Township, N.J. Everyone on board died.
While the cause of the crash is still under investigation, The Associated Press reported that the pilot was talking to an air traffic controller about icing just before the crash.
Buckalew's husband, Jeffrey Buckalew, owned the plane and was a licensed pilot, the AP reported.
Though Corinne Buckalew was born and raised in Greensboro, N.C., she was also the granddaughter of Thomas Payne Howell, former president of Chattanooga's T.H. Payne, an office supply and stationery business. She regularly attended family reunions in the Chattanooga area, according to her cousin, Frank McDonald.
"She's just a lovely person, smart, beautiful," McDonald said Wednesday. "She was married to a great guy."
Buckalew's brother, Rob Stickley, is a Chattanooga businessman and the current vice president of revenue at CraftWorks Restaurants & Brewing Inc., according to his LinkedIn profile.
CraftWorks has headquarters in Louisville, Colo., and Chattanooga and owns Big River Grille and Brewing Works.
Stickley did not respond to a message left Wednesday morning on his home answering machine.