SU student killed in car accident in Tuskegee, Ala.

Southern University student and New Orleans native Tracie Robertson, 22, died Friday, July 27, 2001, of injuries suffered in an automobile accident in Tuskegee, Ala. while travelling to Atlanta.
The fatal accident was caused by a drunk driver whom was travelling westbound on Interstate 85. The driver left the scene. He then turned himself in to authorities two and half -hours later at the hospital in Tuskegee. He was charged with drunk driving. Tracie and two of her friends were travelling eastbound.
While resting on the back seat, she was ejected from the car. She was not wearing a seat belt, and was found dead on arrival. The other two victims also from New Orleans survived the accident. They were wearing their seat belts.
“I went to the funeral services and I still cannot believe she is gone. said Lisa Honore, SU assistant professor, mass communications, “I am still waiting for her to walk in my class and call my name two times.”
Robertson, was a junior majoring in mass communications with a minor in business. Brandy Allen, senior, “I still call her cell phone just to hear her voice — I truly miss her.”
Robertson was born March 29, 1979 in New Orleans and graduated from Sarah T. Reed High School. She went to Dillard University and then transferred to Delgado Community College in New Orleans. She later transferred to SU and was expected to graduate from Southern University fall 2002.
In honor of fulfilling her academic standards, the students of the mass communications department is seeking to petition the department to give Robertson’s degree to her family. Before that can be done, the department must OK the process.
“It’s a chain of command that the university follows before giving a degree to a student family”, said Robert Bennett, Dean of Student Life.
“You were gone before we knew it, and only God knows why. It broke our hearts to loose you, but you did not go alone, for part of us went with you, Robertson’s grandmother, MiMi, said in a tribute to her at the funeral. “The day God called you home, He gave us the strength to bear it.”
“She was great, she was funny and she made the class laugh,” said Misha White, senior, mass communications, Keithville, La.
Survivors include her parents, Barbara and Donald Robertson Sr.; a brother, Donald Robertson Jr.; and her grandparents, John and Nancy Cobb and Dorothy Aouzout. Robertson is buried in New Orleans at St. Roch Cemetery No. 2.