Box Turtle Bulletin
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyJune 19th, 2016
Kimberly Morris, 37 years old.
Friends either called her Kimberly or KJ. She had played basketball at Post University, a private college in Connecticut in 1997, and she remained passionate about the sport. Narvell Benning, who was on the men’s basketball team, said, “I just remember after every single game she would give me a fist bump and tell me ‘Good game,’ It didn’t matter how bad of a game it was, she was always there.” She also enjoyed mixed-martial arts fighting.
While in college, she helped to form the university’s first LGBT organization:
“She always had this ability to make me more comfortable with myself,” said (Steve) Farina. “She introduced me to the Broadway show Rent. For a talent show in school, we did ‘Light My Candle’. I was Roger and she was Mimi. Kim always wanted to get into entertainment.”
“She loved being out there,” he continued. “In college we were really into resident life. She was a resident advisor. She had the ability to get the best of people and make them comfortable.”
Those people skills helped Morris, a huge basketball fan, get into security work at clubs in Massachusetts, where she also worked as a drag king known as “Daddy K” at Northampton spot Diva’s.
After college, she moved to Hawaii. Then a couple of months ago, she moved to Orlando to help her mother and grandmother. “She came back to move and to start a life,” said her mother, Deborah Johnson-Riley. She also said that KJ was enjoying Orlando. “She just had a smile from here to here. She just glowed.”
“Everybody that she met, I don’t know anybody that didn’t love her,” her mother said. “And she was such a good person, but they say the good die young.”
She got a job as a bouncer at Pulse and loved it. Pulse owner Barbara Poma said that KJ “was a good fit for our family.” She was also about to get a job as an assistant basketball coach at a local school. Things really seemed to be lining up for her. Her former girlfriend, Starr Shelton, said, “She was so excited. She’d just started working there and told me how she was thrilled to get more involved in the LGBT community there. She was such a great person and so full of life. I can truly say heaven has gained an angel.”
KJ was among the earliest victims to be identified, and hers was among the first funerals held on Thursday. Among the speakers at her funeral was a Pulse co-worker, who was also working that night. “One thing I do remember of her, four nights a week, was her smile. She had the biggest smile, she would walk in the room and immediately it lit up,” Charice explained. “I want you guys to know the last time I saw her, she was smiling and laughing and enjoying life and she wants you all to continue to laugh and smile and enjoy life like she did.”
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