KETTERING — A community gathered to honor a recent high school graduate who died in an ATV crash over the Fourth of July weekend.
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People who knew 18-year-old Kaylee Watkins called her a bright light.
She was a passenger when the ATV went off a mountain in Kentucky.
On Monday night, Kettering Fairmont High School invited people to attend a memorial for her.
Kaylee’s friends were happy to be with each other.
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She graduated from Kettering Fairmont in May.
“I feel comfort and peace,” Lillian Cordray said.
Lillian said she and Kaylee were best friends.
“We first became friends because we were in an English class and we were just trying to get answers from each other. We were just trying to cheat off each other and just share answers,” she said.
Kettering Fairmont High School principal Karyn Denslow said Kaylee was a bright student.
“She was just a natural leader amongst students,” Denslow said.
Since the fatal crash, people have come together to show their love.
“I think it’s been so cool to see everyone who loves her and cares for her to show up,” Cordray said.
Many of Kaylee’s friends were at the high school to share messages and remember her.
Several of them were wearing bracelets with a motto she had tattooed, “In times of darkness be the light.”
“I think she truly lived by that, and she was a light in so many aspects of her life,” Cordray said.
It’s a loss, Denslow said, that will be felt in the community.
“The loss of such a young light in the world, but she was a great student. She’s a great human,” she said.
Now Cordray plans to carry that light.
“I think Kaylee would want us to keep moving forward, and I think she would want us all to be the light,” she said.
Kaylee planned to start at Wright State in the fall, with hopes of becoming a teacher.
An online fundraiser has been created to help support Watkins’ family.
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