Remembering Kilgore’s Hero Lynzee Travette Ford

Do you remember the story of Lynzee Travette Ford? She is the young lady from Kilgore High that fought her battle with leukemia with her head held high all the way to the end. Today we celebrate her life.

Lynzee, affectionately known as "Lucy" and "Pearl," attended Kilgore schools and graduated from Kilgore High School on Oct. 19, 2014, having earned the outstanding academic excellence of becoming a Texas Scholar. Lynzee was an outstanding student at KHS and her principal, Greg Brown, revealed at her graduation that during her 13 years of enrollment in Kilgore ISD she had "zero referrals." Kilgore ISD performed a special ceremony for Lynzee due to her battle with leukemia. She had only been given so many weeks to live. The school district also ended up having her prom for her at the hospital in Dallas where she was being treated.

As a student at Kilgore High she was a member of the varsity track team starting in seventh grade, throwing the shot put. She also was member of the KHS softball team until her illness then she served as a manager of KHS ladies' basketball and volleyball teams. Lynzee was an avid lover of sports and played softball for Kilgore Youth Softball Association, beginning with T-ball and basketball for Kilgore Youth Basketball Association.

Her beautiful persona allowed her to participate in the Kilgore Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. Debutante Pageant. She was also a member of Kilgore Together/KYSSED, a drug and alcohol abuse prevention program.

Coach Robert Cooley nominated her and she was chosen to represent Texas students in New York, New York, in the summer of 2010 at the Lead America Medical Conference, which is affiliated with Johns Hopkins Hospital. She also volunteered at Kids World Learning Center.
Some of her favorite things were Oklahoma City Thunder's Kevin Durant, shopping, cooking, movies, socks, her phone, and she loved going to the movies and was the No. 1 fan of R&B/Rap artist Drake (SQUAD).

Today would have been Lynzee would have been 24 years old. Her memory lives in her mom and some of us today. She was a brave fighter to the end and her memory will live forever.