South DeKalb will bid a sad farewell this weekend to three members of the Mallett family.

Ainsworth Mallett, his wife Jacqueline Mallett, 12-year-old son Drew and the family dog were killed in a car crash in New Jersey on Dec. 27. The Malletts’ daughter, Nicole, 18, survived the crash with minor injuries.

Visitation will be Friday, Jan. 4, between 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. at Gregory Levett & Sons Funeral Home, 4347 Flat Shoals Parkway in Decatur. The wake takes place at 7 p.m. at the same location.

The funeral for the three family members will be 11 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 5, at Tabernacle Assembly of God Church, 1580 Agape Way in Decatur.

The Malletts owned the Golden Krust Caribbean Bakery and Grill franchise on Rockbridge Road in Lithonia. It is a popular gathering place for the local Caribbean-American community.

New Jersey State Police said a tractor-trailer rear-ended the Malletts’ silver Toyota Camry on the New Jersey Turnpike when traffic slowed unexpectedly. The investigation is still active, police said, and no one had been charged at press time.

During a Jan. 2 candlelight prayer vigil in front of the store in the Rockbridge Square Shopping Center, about 50 family members, friends and customers remembered the Malletts as generous, conscientious and hardworking business owners who built a personal bond with customers.

Speaker after speaker called them caring friends and good business people running a successful restaurant for six and a half years.

“It is a great loss for this community,” said Jacqueline Hawthorn Robinson, a family friend and owner of the Golden Krust franchise on South Hairston Road.

“We really loved them,” she said. “We’re going to miss them. They were a super family.”