kelloggs5TLfan
Team Owner
By Kelly Cales
http://www.tricities.com/tri/news/l...on_eighth_anniversary_of_wedding_there/13413/
Published: August 30, 2008
BRISTOL, Tenn. – Connie Bishop is best described as a loyal race fan.
“Yeah, it was Dale Earnhardt. On Sundays, it was either love or fighting. Most of the time, it was a fight ’cause I was a Rusty Wallace fan,” said her husband Tony Bishop.
When they decided to tie the knot, he says it only made sense to have the ceremony at the place she loved the most. The Unicoi County, Tenn., couple was married on the grounds of the Bristol Motor Speedway on Aug. 22, 2000.
“One of her good friends, he bought us a sign up there that said: ‘Married the way it oughta be,’ ” Tony Bishop said.
And hours after celebrating their eighth wedding anniversary at BMS last weekend Tony Bishop found his wife’s lifeless body lying on the floor of their camper in Earhart Campgrounds.
He recalled Connie Bishop’s unusual wedding dress that matched the nontraditional venue for their nuptials.
“I’d never seen it ’til the day she walked up on the bridge with it, and it just blowed my mind something that she’d come up with. Unique. But that’s the way she was, unique,” said Tony Bishop.
The dress displayed patches of her favorite driver’s name and car number – Dale Earnhardt No. 3.
He knew his 51-year-old wife had health problems, but he didn’t know how serious.
“She had had a heart blockage, high blood pressure and sometimes back pain,” he said, adding she didn’t let it stand in the way of the sport she loved.
“She told all of her family and friends that she was going to the race [last weekend], and it might be her last one,” Tony Bishop said.
Unfortunately, no one knew how true her words would become.
“I lost my wife and my best friend,” said Bishop.
Bristol Tennessee Police are investigating Connie Bishop’s death, and they say no evidence of foul play has been discovered.
It seemed her love and loyalty of NASCAR racing and BMS brought her to the track one last time.
“She always looked forward to coming to Bristol. I have never seen nothing like it,” Tony Bishop said. “I enjoyed going, but she just enjoyed it so much it was unreal.”
KELLY CALES is a multimedia intern who can be reached at [email protected] or (276) 669-2181.