Franklin community remembers Cindy Peak with evening walk memorial

Dozens of Franklin community members gathered in the Monticello neighborhood on March 30 for an evening memorial honoring the life of Cindy Peak, one of six vicitm’s of the March 27 shooting at The Covenant School in Green Hills. 

Peak, a Franklin resident and educator, was working as a substitute teacher at the school.

The crowd of friends, neighbors and family members gathered on Peak’s front lawn at dusk to remember Peak and honor her with a community walk around the neighborhood, as she would do in the evenings. 

Monticello Homeowners Association Co-President David Lawbaugh has lived in the neighborhood with his wife for 25 years and helped to organize the memorial walk.

“We support each other and care and in any way that we can find to do, and that's kind of the purpose of our homeowners association, as well, is to support and be an advocate in any way we can to help our residents,” Lawbaugh told The News. 

“When this tragedy happened, the only thing that we can think of is, how can we help? What can we do to help these people to ease in as best they can to their new reality?”

“She was a wonderful person, really a standout person in our community, and not only our community of Franklin, [but] Williamson County, Nashville.”

Longtime Christ Community Church Pastor Mike Smith also spoke at the memorial and led the group in a prayer for Peak, the Peak family, and all of the victims, and the vigil was also attended by several Franklin Fire Department officials.

“I will tell you we need to be supportive of this family for weeks and months to come,” Smith said.

On March 28, Gov. Bill Lee addressed Tennesseans in a video message in which he spoke of his personal connection to Peak.

“Maria woke up this morning without one of her best friends, Cindy Peak. Cindy was supposed to come over to have dinner with Maria last night after she filled in as a substitute teacher yesterday at Covenant,” Lee said.

“Cindy and Maria and Katherine Koonce were all teachers at the same school and have been family friends for decades.”

While the intimate memorial included tears, it also included laughter and remembrances of Peak’s positive impact on children, her family, friends and neighbors, and as attendees walked the streets lined with paper lanterns, some hand in hand, they walked in Peak’s footsteps and shared in her memory.

“It was a horrifically tragic event,” Peak's husband Chris told the crowd, his family surrounding him. “I want everybody here to hear me, that there were three precious kids, another lady, Katherine Koonce, who I knew, and of course Mr. Hill, and I want us to pray for them, I want us to lift them up and make this more of a celebration than anything else.”

“Do I miss my wife? Yes. And I will miss my wife. Am I mad? I was mad and I still am mad and that’s okay to be mad, but what I do and what I have told my kids is to hold on to what I know is the truth,” Peak said.

“And that is that my wife loved Jesus, she loved kids, she died doing what she loved, and beyond a shadow of a doubt, I know that she was protecting those kids, and I want everybody here to know that.”

The March 27 shooting focused international attention on Nashville, with Williamson County officials and community members reacting with calls for prayers and action. More information about how to give — and get — help after the Covenant shooting can be found here.