Karl Etters

Democrat staff writer

Darlene Horton loved the game of tennis. The retired special education teacher adored her husband, Florida State psychology professor Rick Wagner, and their grown kids. She cherished the time she was able to spend with him, teaching overseas in the university's summer program.

On Wednesday, the semester in London came to an end. Horton and Wagner were set to come home to Tallahassee. Her friend Mary Alice Linzy was looking forward to a doubles match at Killearn Country Club.

Then Linzy saw reports on Facebook of an American woman killed in a Wednesday night stabbing rampage in London's bustling Russell Square, just blocks from the FSU Study Centre. She prayed it wasn't her close friend for 15 years.

“We’re just a small little town here and we have this small tennis community,” Linzy said. “What’s the odds? I know it can happen anywhere to anyone but what are the odds?”

Horton, the happy woman with the magnetic personality, never made it to the hospital. She died at the scene after paramedics tried to save her. Two women and three men – another American, an Australian and citizens of Israel and England – also were injured in the attack Scotland Yard says was carried out by a knife-wielding 19-year-old Norwegian national of Somalian origin.

Police: Mental health 'significant factor' in deadly London knife attack

Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley said police so far have found no evidence of radicalization or anything that would suggest the teen was motivated by terrorism.

"Whilst the investigation is not yet complete — all of the work that we have done so far, increasingly points to this tragic incident as having been triggered by mental health issues," he said. "At this time we believe this was a spontaneous attack and the victims were selected at random."

The random, brutal killing of 64-year-old Horton devastated those who knew her. Many friends were too bereft to talk about her passing. University officials rushed to assist Wagner, who remained in London.

FSU President John Thrasher expressed grief on behalf of the university family.

“There are no words to express our heartache over this terrible tragedy,” Thrasher said. “We are shocked that such senseless violence has touched our own FSU family, and we will do all we can to assist Professor Wagner and his loved ones, as well as his friends and colleagues in the Psychology department, as they mourn.”

Janet Kistner and Wagner started their careers at FSU as psychology professors around the same time. Each had children and the families became fast friends, commiserating over the struggles of parenthood.

Kistner, FSU’s vice president for faculty development and advancement, remembered Horton as a bubbly, vibrant person deeply involved in her tightknit family.

“Darlene for me was just a bright, inquisitive person,” Kistner said.

Wagner and Horton were devoted to the study abroad program and had been traveling overseas for several years, Kistner said.

“They were a terrific couple and a lot of us were quite close with them,” Kistner added. “We are a faculty that knows everybody as family. It’s very much a loss for all of us.”

Horton was a longtime educator in Thomasville City Schools where she began as a special education teacher in 1984. Jocelyn Thompson met her two years later when they were both teachers at Balfour School for Young Children. She recalled Horton’s gentle, loving nature toward students.

“She was just pleasant, loved her students and was eager to do whatever she had to do. She would go beyond the extra mile to what she could for her students,” Thompson said. “She had a vibrant personality. That’s been so many years ago but I remember it like it was right now.”

Horton and Wagner are admired in the psychology and education world. Their philanthropic efforts, which extended to the Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare Foundation, Opening Nights and Humane Society did not surprise friends.

Jane Marks remembered Horton as a devoted, family oriented mother and educator. A neighbor of Wagner and Horton for more than a decade, Marks said the couple and their two adult children were the epitome of a happy family.

“When you hear the term, fine family, they’re what I think of,” Marks said. “She is absolutely lovely. Just one of the nicest, sweetest family focused people who is very happy in her space and place.”

Horton’s tennis partner Linzy and several others gathered as usual Thursday morning at the Killearn Country Club tennis courts, but it was hard to play. Something was missing.

“I’m just going to miss her so much. She was an inspiration for me,” Linzy said. “Every time I step on the tennis court now I’m going to be thinking of Darlene. I just cannot believe it.”

Contact Karl Etters at ketters@tallahasee.com or @KarlEtters on Twitter.