By: Elise Stephens, WBIR

Strong winds proved fatal in Loudon County as a car drove in the path of a falling tree.
63-year-old Joe Henderson of Loudon County was killed instantly.

"To know he can be gone in an instant, it's a sad thing," said Charles Henderson, Joe Henderson's son.Charles Henderson's world stopped for a moment Sunday when he learned his dad died. "Just disbelief," he said. "You hear it happen to other people, but you don't think it will happen to you." He's not only shocked that he didn't get to say goodbye, but the way it all happened.

Usually, Mr. Henderson would have attended church with his wife."Him and my mother were fighting the flu bug. He was running to town on a simple errand," Charles Henderson said.

According to the Tennessee Highway Patrol, Mr. Henderson was traveling down Vonore Road around 11 a.m. when a gust of wind blew a tree onto his car. Joe Henderson died on the scene."It was a freak thing that it fell the way it did," his son added.

Henderson served in the Army Corps of Engineers and the National Guard. Then, he started a long career with the Tennessee Valley Authority. He recently retired and was enjoying life with his wife and working part-time for his son.

"He would be the one you would term as a real character. He was full of life. It's been said that he could be air-dropped in Afghanistan and he would run into somebody he knew," said Charles Henderson.

Henderson is the second member of the Loudon County Planning commission to die in an automobile accident in less than a month. In January, board member, Ron Parr, was killed in a vehicle accident resulting from icy roads.