Editor’s note: This is one of a continuing online series of profiles of the more than 12,000 Hoosiers who have died from COVID-19. The stories are from 12 Indiana newspapers, including The Republic, who collaborated to create the collection to highlight the tremendous loss that the pandemic has created. The series appears daily at therepublic.com.
Name: Jerry Rennick
City/Town: Kingman
Age: 67
Died: April 11
Jerry Rennick got his start in the agricultural industry by driving a truck.
He worked his way up the ladder into management and eventually became a salesman.
When he wasn’t hunting with his dog or cheering for IU basketball, he was playing music with friends.
In early March 2020, Rennick headed to the Bloomington area for one of his regular music sessions and became sick shortly afterward.
At first he thought the fever, body aches and dry throat were signs of the flu, but his daughter Erin Baldwin had read the warnings about COVID-19 and called the local health department. Rennick isolated himself in his apartment.
A week later, Rennick, who had COPD, sent Baldwin a text saying he couldn’t breathe and was calling an ambulance. He spent three days in a Williamsport hospital before he was transferred to a hospital in Indianapolis and hooked up to a ventilator.
As Rennick continued battling the illness, his family urged the community not to shrug off the virus.
“This is not a time for finger-pointing. This is a time for love and compassion and support,” Baldwin said. “We really, as humans, need to come together on this. No human lives should be lost over something we can prevent.”
— Contributed by the Journal Review in Crawfordsville
