Passenger killed in Mount Pleasant plane crash remembered as ‘kind-hearted’ by brother

MOUNT PLEASANT, Texas (KLTV) - The Texas Department of Public Safety confirms one person died in a plane crash in Mount Pleasant on July 3.

According to DPS, the single-engine aircraft crashed near County Roads 4550 and 4530, just north of the Mount Pleasant airport. DPS said the preliminary investigation indicates the aircraft was approaching the runway from the north when it clipped a tree and crashed north of the runway.

DPS and family members have confirmed Jere Kellough, 59, of Omaha, TX, died in the crash. DPS said the pilot, Jon Anderson, 50, of Mount Pleasant, was taken to UT Medical Center in Tyler with incapacitating injuries.

DPS said passenger Tracy Kellough, 54, of Omaha, was also taken to UT Medical Center in Tyler with incapacitating injuries. Passenger Tanya Anderson, 49, of Mount Pleasant, was taken to Titus Regional Medical Center in Mount Pleasant with non-incapacitating injuries.

Johnny Kellough, Jere’s brother, called his brother a “go-getter.”

“He’s a giver, he’s kind hearted. This isn’t unexpected knowing the way he lives, because he lives on the edge everyday,” said Johnny Kellough, the older brother of 59-year-old Jere Kellough. Jere was a passenger on a plane that crashed late Sunday night. Johnny said his brother’s legacy will live on in the people he helped.

“Cause there was a lot of people he’d pay phone bills, buy them telephones, pay the water bills, pay house payments,” Kellough said. “He would buy travel trailers and put people in them that didn’t have a place to stay. It wasn’t the Taj Mahal but it was out of the weather. He was just that kind of person.”

DPS confirmed the pilot, Jon Anderson, of Mount Pleasant, was taken to a Tyler hospital with incapacitating injuries.

“Jere and John just run together, they hung together, they were always on the go,” he said.

Jere’s wife Tracy Kellough was taken to a Tyler hospital with incapacitating injuries as well.

“They’ve been married 32 years and Tracey seems like she’s been around forever. I can’t remember anyone else. I just, I can’t understand it,” Kellough said.

His brother said there was nothing Jere didn’t do or try.

“When we were kids he thought he was Evel Knievel. He had the Evel Knievel suite, we had the minibikes. I can remember stitches in his forehead many times, not once but many times. He was a character,” Kellough said.

The National Transportation Safety Board had an investigator at the scene examining the wreckage.

Their preliminary report will be available in a few weeks. A full investigation could take up to two years.

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