JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The family of a well-known hot dog vendor who died in a traffic accident last month is preparing to memorialize the 56-year-old, but they're having a hard time locating the lives he touched.
Florida Highway Patrol troopers said William OGrady was killed on June 16th along State Road 13 in St. Johns County after accidentally stepping into the path of a black Jeep Cherokee.
The SUV was being driven by 43-year-old James Forbes of Green Cove Springs' but police have not said if he was at fault.
Family members said Troopers admitted to loosing OGrady's cell phone at the scene, which had all his contacts in it. They'd like to hear from people who knew "Billy the Hot Dog Man."
According to OGrady he brought a little bit of New Jersey to Jacksonville via frankfurters and hot sausages.
"I couldn't find a good hot dog anywhere, so I figured that was my purchase in life," OGrady said.
Aside from great hot dogs O'Grady was featured on News4Jax last summer after his hot dog stand passed city health inspections with a clean bill of health.
"I've got a lot of ice, I pack up my stuff and property and put in the cooler with a lot of ice," OGrady said.
But just last month, troopers said OGrady was killed while working on a driveway paving project with another company in St. Johns County. His family members said they wanted to reach out to his customers and friends but the only log of his friends phone numbers, was on OGradys cell phone, which they said troopers misplaced.
His family has been posting signs on the corners where OGrady sold his hot dogs trying to reach out to the people he touched.
"His glass was always half full. When you were having a tough day, you drive by there and sit underneath his tent and he made you lunch, and he talked to you. He was a great guy," Ogrady's friend Barbara Langston said.
Langston, who has known OGrady for years, said he took pride in his foot longs and sausages. Some of them imported straight from New Jersey because he couldn't get his favorite pork down south.
Family members said OGrady, who was in the Navy, went to culinary school and could have worked in a five-star restaurant, but instead, he pleased the crowds and the people he called friends in Jacksonville for more than 10 years, selling hot dogs.
"I miss his smile, I miss the brightness that he always brought to our lives. I miss that the most and of course, his hot dogs," Langston said.
While OGrady's family hopes that friends will see the signs that sit on Beach Boulevard and in San Marco his family has scheduled a memorial service at the Eternity Funeral Home off 4856 Oakdale Avenue in Jacksonville.
They hope that those friends will see the signs and make it to the memorial which is scheduled for this Friday from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.