Ernest Franklin, 58, a Barren County Sheriff's Deputy, killed, after his car leaves the Kentucky 90 roadway near Glasgow, strikes an embankment and crashes into a small pond.

Barren County sheriff’s Deputy Ernest Franklin walked into work every day wearing a broad smile.

“There wasn’t a day that he didn’t come through the front door, and the first thing you would see on him was a smile on his face,” Trevor Phillips, sheriff’s office civil and criminal process specialist, said this morning.

Franklin, 58, of Glasgow, died in a single-vehicle wreck Wednesday afternoon while on duty, according to a release from Kentucky State Police.

Franklin was driving east on Ky. 90 when his vehicle exited the right shoulder of the road and struck an embankment and tree stump before coming to rest in a small pond.

State police were called to the scene at 1:43 p.m. The Barren County Coroner’s Office later pronounced Franklin dead at T.J. Samson Community Hospital, the Deputy Coroner said.

An autopsy is scheduled today, Phillips said.

Franklin was raised in Glasgow with 10 siblings, Phillips said. He has one adult daughter and has worked for the sheriff’s office for more than eight years.

“He is a process server with us,” Phillips said. “I would gather the papers every morning for the ones he would serve that day. We have two people assigned to serve civil process.”

Franklin was the type of person who saw the positive in life. He also was known for feeding people at Thanksgiving.

“Him and his family would work on this for several months in advance and get donations from local groups and businesses,” Phillips said

“Even big businesses would donate to the event. (Franklin’s family) would take names of people and their addresses and would deliver (food) to them or they could come to the Bunche Center and eat. He fed hundreds of people.”

Franklin was a hardcore University of Louisville sports fan. When Louisville recently lost an NCAA Sweet 16 tournament game to the University of Kentucky he came in to work the following morning and announced, “My team lost, but I’m rooting for your team now,” Phillips said.

“He never had a bad day. He tried to turn the negative upside down and tried to look at it in a positive way,” Phillips said. “He’s going to be truly missed. That’s for sure.”