CD: A kiss goodbye: Lakesha Gillespie, victim of Academy Crossing fire, remembered as a fun-loving, artistic woman

TIM PRATT

As the family of 20-year-old Lakesha Gillespie approached her casket Tuesday inside Pine Grove Missionary Baptist Church, her mother, Bessie, and sisters, Shonta and Adrian, couldn’t hold back tears. Gillespie’s father, Joe Henry, and brother, Joe, also fought to hold back their emotions as each walked to the casket and gave Lakesha one last kiss goodbye.

An overflow crowd packed the pews, aisles and lobby inside the church in southern Oktibbeha County to remember Gillespie, who died of smoke inhalation Dec. 28 at the Academy Crossing Apartments fire on Louisville Street. She was remembered Tuesday as an artist who loved to draw, sing and dance.

After the service, longtime friend Lola Jenkins pointed to a photo of Gillespie on the front of a program distributed at the funeral. In the photo, Gillespie had a smile on her face and was looking over her shoulder.

“That sparkle,” Jenkins said, looking down at the photo. “She always had that sparkle.”

Jenkins and others described Gillespie as a fun-loving woman who always had a smile on her face. That was part of the reason it was so hard for friends and family to accept her untimely death.

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