As a child -- which was not very long ago -- Sarah Beth ran around our Highlands neighborhood in a dress, the prettier and the frillier the better.

A family friend remembers her on an early camping trip at Red River Gorge, her father lugging the backpack up the trail as Sarah Beth, 4, scampered along in a pink dress.
"She always was a girlie girl," one friend recalled to laughter among those assembled April 13 for her funeral.

At age 22, Sarah Beth Adkins died on April 10, less than a year after she had been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) -- which is better known as Lou Gehrig's disease, named after the New York Yankees' first baseman who died in 1941 from the neurodegenerative illness. There is no known cause and no cure.

There was a little laughter, but far more tears, among the relatives, friends and neighbors who attended the service at Thomas Jefferson Unitarian Church.

Sarah Beth's parents, both medical professionals, were forced to watch helplessly as the disease that had stricken their daughter last summer robbed her of strength, speech and, finally, her ability to breathe. Her mother, Sheila Ward, is a nurse midwife and teacher at the University of Louisville, who specializes in helping women deliver healthy babies. Her father, Phil Adkins, a physical therapist, helps people recover strength and skills lost to injury or illness.

At the funeral, the Rev. Elwood Sturtevant described ALS as a very "cruel disease," and none in the overflow crowd that had gathered for the service on a chilly, dreary Sunday afternoon would disagree. Friends and relatives who spoke described a bright, sweet and compassionate child who, as she grew up, possessed an innate ability to inspire and delight.

Her friends recalled these events:

• Sneaking out of Sarah Beth's bedroom window onto the roof on sleepovers to watch the stars (a revelation that left her father shaking his head in disbelief).

• Becoming best friends for life in grade school after an initial battle over crayons.

• Aggravating her older brother, Stanley, whom Sarah Beth and friends could always count on to entertain and make them laugh.

• And, upon earning her driver's license at age 16, bumping the family van into a post with no discernible damage -- and Sarah Beth ordering her girlfriend never to tell her parents because they will never let me drive again!

The friend obeyed until the funeral, when she revealed the story to everyone present, including Sarah Beth's parents, who laughed while they cried.

I don't think anyone missed the point that Sarah Beth won't be driving again. But here is what she is doing. Sarah Beth Adkins is the inspiration for many friends, family and neighbors to join in the annual Louisville ALS walk Saturday.

Reporter Deborah Yetter can be reached at (502) 582-4228.

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