‘The thing that killed her was the thing she loved’: Loved one remembers Ronda Persall, Alabama woman killed by dogs

JONES CHAPEL, Ala. (WIAT) – She sang Delta Dawn, and she sang it well. And when Ronda Persall sang, the whole neighborhood could hear. But nobody complained. She was that good.

Carman Cupp said she’ll never forget Ronda Persall, who died in the early hours of Sunday morning after being attacked by her neighbor’s dogs in Jones Chapel, a small community in Cullman County.

Persall, Cupp said, was a loud, loving Southern woman. Persall, who grew up in the West Point area, loved the outdoors, was always happy, and made the best biscuits Carman Cupp had ever eaten.

Cupp laughed as she described Persall’s outgoing personality, calling her “the mouth of the South.”

“We had to watch where we took her,” Cupp joked. “She was loud. Anything was liable to come out of that little mouth. You’d hear Ronda coming before you saw her.”

Persall, age 57, was an animal lover, Cupp said.

“Animals was her thing,” she said. “Especially dogs.”

For Cupp, that fact made Persall’s death all the more shocking.

“I just can’t get over them dogs doing that to her,” Cupp said. “She’s attracted to dogs. And they loved her. Animals loved her.”

Cupp said she believes over a dozen “mutts” were at the home where Persall was killed.

“It’s tough,” she said of dealing with Persall’s death. “Especially when the thing that killed her was the thing she loved.”

Persall was retired, according to Cupp, but was still handy.

“She was one of the best diesel mechanics you’d ever seen,” Cupp said. Persall, who Cupp said weighed less than a hundred pounds “soaking wet,” would climb onto a big rig if it needed fixing: “She was like a spider monkey.”

Cupp said she’ll miss Ronda Persall’s sense of humor. She’ll miss her laugh. And she’ll miss her singing barefoot at the horse camp all night long.

She wishes she could hear it one more time. She wouldn’t complain. Ronda Persall was that good.