Bubba Copeland, mayor of the small Alabama town of Smiths Station and lead pastor at the First Baptist Church in nearby Phenix City, killed himself on November 3.
On the morning of June 25, 2016, Sherman Copeland left his home in Hallandale Beach on his nearly new Honda CBR motorcycle and was headed for the bank. “I remember that day like it was yesterday,” Darchel Copeland, 50, said. “He just was going to the bank and coming right back.” That morning would be the last she would hear her husband’s voice.