But however the people of Waldo viewed Hope Powell, they all speak of a woman who never stopped smiling.

Waldo Fire and Rescue's acting fire chief died Sunday after crashing an all-terrain vehicle at Gatorback Cycle Park in Newberry.

Powell, 39, was pronounced dead after she was ejected from a 2005 Honda four-wheeler on a steep incline. The vehicle rolled end-over-end down the hill and landed on top of her, killing her instantly, the Florida Highway Patrol said.

The blond-haired, blue-eyed woman known to love four-wheeling had gone riding with some friends after working as a paramedic at an ATV race there earlier that day. She was not wearing a helmet, however authorities said protective gear probably would not have been able to save her life in the 5 p.m. crash.

Chief Hope Powell, top (photo courtesy gainesvile.com )

Powell formerly worked for Alachua County Fire Rescue and was married to Jason Powell, a firefighter for Gainesville Fire Rescue, so emergency crews who responded to the crash scene instantly knew her. They called Waldo Fire Chief Andy Burkhalter, who was in Norfolk, Va., preparing to deploy to Iraq with his Navy dive team.

The chief knew Powell's family was in church when he got the news, so he called the First Baptist Church of Waldo, and the Rev. Jim DuBois left the pulpit for the emergency call. Then he and some other church members took Powell's father, Don Schenck, outside to tell him what happened. The father went home with some of the members to tell Powell's mother, Bobbi Schenck.

Later that night, more than 300 people, including firefighters, police, Waldo Mayor Louie Davis and other family and friends gathered at the church to mourn Powell and pay respects to her family. Other firefighters showed up to the Waldo Fire Station to take over the Waldo employees' shifts.

Burkhalter drove all night to get back to Waldo and support his crew. When he arrived, he found Powell's teenaged daughter, April Czarnecki, sleeping in her mother's bunk at the fire station.

"I told her as mad as I was, as scared as I was and as sad as I was, all my thoughts ended with a smirk or a smile because you can't consider Hope's life without it ending in a smile," the chief said.

Friends described her as a magnetizing, energetic person who dazzled everyone she met.

"I don't know anyone that met her and didn't like her," Waldo Police Chief A.W. Smith said. "She's one of the most upbeat persons I've ever known."

Kim Worley, the city manager, was close friends with Powell.

"She was always ready to help, whether it was with something with public works like helping to blow out a ditch, something for a city event from playing an elf with Santa to cooking hot dogs for recreation, helping animals, helping people, checking blood pressure, just whatever was needed she was there and she did it," Worley wrote in a tribute to her friend.

She recalled one instance when Powell, also known for her pranks, snuck some rocks into the hubcaps of a police officer's new car.

"He was trying to show it off, but it just kept going 'clank, clank' when he drove it," Worley said, laughing at the memory.

Burkhalter turned Powell down the first time she showed up at his door asking for a job. He told her to figure out what she wanted to do and come back. Less than two months later, she enrolled in a firefighter school, and she was hired before she even completed the course. The chief said Powell excelled until she was so good at her job, everyone else in the department felt challenged to do better, too.

The first time Powell had to fill in for the chief another time he deployed to Iraq, Powell told him she was nervous because she had big shoes to fill.

"I told her she was wrong, and that it was I who worried about filling her shoes when I came back," Burkhalter said.

In addition to her work fighting fires and leading the fire rescue team at Waldo, Powell was one of the first community members called when they had a medical emergency. A former emergency room technician for Shands at AGH, Powell was the first person callers asked for when they contacted the fire station.

"They didn't want anyone else. They wanted Hope's opinion and Hope's smile," Burkhalter said.

Although she was his employee, Mayor Davis said he took orders from her when it came to his health. He recalled one city council meeting when he was having chest pains, and Powell examined him.

"I asked if I could wait (to go to the hospital) until after the city council meeting, and she said, 'No. You need to go.' So I did," he said.

Fighting tears as he sat in his office Monday, Davis said Powell "was just like one of my own kids. I watched her grow up."

Powell also was one of the town's only licensed massage therapists in a side business she called "Hope for the Day." And in her spare time she worked with children in her church's youth group; visited the elderly; and rode horses, sometimes competitively.

Powell's husband, Jason, said she was "the kind of person anybody could call, day or night. She was a wonderful wife and mother. Her disposition was incomparable."

He said his wife died doing something she loved, and that he was relieved that she didn't suffer.

"This lady was a rescue person who was just enjoying the trail after (the competition). It's tragic," said Tommy Neal, one of the organizers for the Gatorback Hare Scrambles event Powell worked at Sunday. He said the competition ended at 3 p.m.

Competitors in such events are required to wear extensive protective head and body gear, Neal said, but cycle parks typically don't issue gear requirements for people who are riding for pleasure.

"I wear a chest protector, knee braces, elbow guards, a neck collar. It takes me 15 minutes to get dressed," Neal said. "But I don't imagine that a helmet even would have helped in (Powell's) situation."

He said the Honda Powell was riding is heavier than most ATVs, which made it more vulnerable to a crash.

A visitation for Powell will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. today at Milam Funeral Home, 311 S. Main St., Gainesville, and her funeral is scheduled for 10 a.m. Wednesday morning at the First Baptist Church of Waldo's Family Life Center, 14330 Kennard St.