“You were genuinely kind, always looking for ways to make someone else smile,” Kaylee’s Watkin’s mom, Andry Watkins, said of her daughter
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(jpeg)/Kaylee-Watkins-071026-b844dc998601417bba7491731f8ac389.jpg "High School Graduate Kaylee Watkins Dies After ATV Goes Off the Side of a Mountain, Family Says")
Credit: Gofundme
NEED TO KNOW
- Kaylee Watkins, 18, died in an ATV accident while spending the weekend with her boyfriend’s family in Kentucky
- She recently graduated high school and planned to study early childhood education at Wright State University in the fall
- A fundraiser in her honor has raised over $21,000 of its $24,000 goal
An 18-year-old woman died after an ATV she was on slid off the side of a Kentucky mountain, her family said.
Kaylee Watkins of Kettering, Ohio, died on Friday, July 3, according to her obituary. “Kaylee was a passenger in a vehicle that went off the side of a mountain in Kentucky,” her dad, David Watkins, said in a statement on social media.
The incident occurred while Kaylee was on a trip with her boyfriend’s family, according to local NBC affiliate WDTN.
A recent graduate from Fairmont High School, Kaylee was looking forward to attending Wright State University and planned to study early childhood education. Her dad said she had a natural gift with young children and would have made an exceptional teacher in his social media tribute.
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“She blessed everybody she ever encountered,” Kaylee’s uncle Clark Mote told WDTN.
Mote — who also created a GoFundMe following Kaylee’s death — remembered his niece as someone with a kind heart and an infectious smile. He said she could always make people laugh and was “one of the brightest lights” in their family.
“You had the gentlest soul. You were genuinely kind, always looking for ways to make someone else smile,” Kaylee’s mom, Andry Watkins, said according to the fundraiser. “Ever since you were little, you loved giving compliments and making people feel special. That was just who you were.”
