EVERETT – The Vanlandingham boys were known for their leather jackets and motorcycles.
At Cascade High School in the late 1970s, a crowd of girls greeted their bus each morning.
“It was always like that,” said classmate Tasha Kuljis, 41. “They were such babes.”
Darryl Vanlandingham, 45, and his twin brother, Doug, died Dec. 22 in an RV crash on a Nevada highway.
Doug Vanlandingham’s wife, Lynn, 40, suffered cracked vertebrae and a crushed ankle. Their son, Soren, 13, was not injured.
The brothers were longtime employees at Boeing and partners in life.
“When they would lean in to talk to each other, everyone else would disappear,” Lynn Vanlandingham said.
Even as adults, the brothers would lie on their stomachs, each with one elbow up, hand on cheek, to watch television.
“In the early days, Doug and Darryl looked so identical that I couldn’t tell them apart,’ said Shawn Southwick, Lynn Vanlandingham’s brother.
In later years, the similarities faded.
Darryl Vanlandingham was the consummate bachelor, Lynn Vanlandingham said.
“He was gregarious and just fun to be around,” she said. “He liked to be part of whatever was going on.”
Darryl Vanlandingham’s friend, Kirk Verhey, wrote a song, “Race Car Man,” for him.
“He’s a race car man,” Verhey wrote. “Racin’ around, king of the town.”
Doug Vanlandingham coached his son’s North Everett Soccer League team.
Soren learned to blow glass, an art Doug Vanlandingham had set aside for after the job at Boeing. He dreamed of retiring early.
“He always had a list – a map of our lives,” Lynn Vanlandingham said. “We were going to sell our house and buy property and have a glass studio.”
Late last year, Doug and Darryl Vanlandingham planned a family road trip to Arizona, where their father spends the winter. They were to alternate drivers and go nonstop.
About 5 a.m. Dec. 22, Lynn Vanlandingham was jolted awake by the sound of metal on metal.
“My hair was blowing; it was windy, and we began tumbling, just falling,” she said.
She reached for her son, who was nearly buried in wreckage, and screamed for help until emergency crews arrived.
“The ambulance driver was so good to me,” Lynn Vanlandingham said. “He took my face and held my forehead to his forehead. I told him, ‘I need to find Doug.’ He said, ‘No, you know in your heart what happened, and you’re going to be OK.’ “
According to the Nevada Highway Patrol, the RV drifted into oncoming traffic and struck a tractor-trailer driven by Donald Bitz, 49, of Alberta, Canada.
Bitz and Doug and Darryl Vanlandingham died at the scene. Doug Vanlandingham was in the cab, and Darryl Vanlandingham was thrown from a bunk in the back.
Lynn and Soren Vanlandingham were taken to a hospital in Nevada, then were transferred to a hospital in Salt Lake City. Lynn Vanlandingham is now at Providence Everett Medical Center’s Pacific Campus.
Funeral services are postponed until Lynn Vanlandingham is released. Two older Vanlandingham brothers, Mike and Mark, live in the area.
A fund for Lynn and Soren Vanlandingham has been created at Boeing Employees Credit Union.
Reporter Krista J. Kapralos: 425-339-3422 or kkapralos@heraldnet.com.
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