Kyra Winslow seemed to have the same effect on everyone in her orbit, whether it be classmates, teammates, family or friends.
The St. Thomas sophomore made them look at life differently.
“She just had this undeniable desire to make people smile,” Kyra’s father, Russell Winslow, said.
At only 20 years old, Kyra and her friend, Molly Young, died in a car crash on Interstate 94 in Wisconsin on Saturday, Dec. 5.
Russell Winslow said Kyra was “at the absolute pinnacle of her life.”
“She was becoming this beautiful woman, but she didn’t do it by leaps and bounds,” he said. “She did it by being a little bit better each day.”
Kyra was many things: a soccer player, a go-getter in her classes and extracurriculars, and a budding communication studies major interning for TommieMedia. She was passionate about equality and unity, whether in a conversation among friends or a discussion about the 2020 election. She was a sister to Darian and Tanner and a daughter to Russell and Desiree.
And to the many others whose lives she touched, Kyra wasn’t just a friend.
“She really didn’t have any friends; she had best friends,” Russell Winslow said. “Everybody that speaks, refers to her as their best friend. I know it’s not just talk because I’ve heard her say the same thing.”
Kyra’s friend, Addie Johnson, said something that other friends and family members echoed: “She stood up for the people that she cared about, and she would never let anything happen to them.”
Russell Winslow said he has learned new things about Kyra through the stories her friends have told since her death.
“I’ve been hearing (friends) speak that she was the badass,” he said. “She would not allow anybody, at any time, for any reason, to ever talk down or to stand over any of her friends. It’s funny because I could never say this. She was 120 pounds. To me, I didn’t see a badass. I saw a little angel.”
Russell Winslow told a story from a memorial the St. Michael-Albertville soccer program held for Kyra that showed just how much she meant to her friends.
He recalled that one of the men’s soccer players at the ceremony stood up and said, “If you knew Kyra and you weren’t her friend, it wasn’t because of her. It was your fault. Because she wanted to be friends with everybody.”
Russell Winslow said the same young man came up to him after the ceremony and whispered in his ear, “Your daughter changed my life.”
Two days later, Russell Winslow received a Facebook direct message from the young man’s father that thanked him and said Kyra had helped his son become more confident and happier.
“I had never met the kid before,” Winslow said. “I had never met his father before. Humbling.”
Others shared similar sentiments.
“I used to live and think more long term,” Kyra’s boyfriend, Cameron Klimm, said. “She kind of changed me to live a little bit more short term and have a lot more fun in my life.”
Even those who didn’t know Kyra for long were touched by her.
“The night before she passed, we were all in her room, and I was trying to explain a story to everybody,” St. Thomas sophomore Edric Waindim said. “Side conversations started, and people got distracted, but Kyra stayed looking at me until I finished the story.”
During St. Thomas’ Dec. 10 prayer service, university chaplain the Rev. Lawrence Blake expressed grief to family and friends over the loss of Kyra and Molly.
“The dreams that you had for these two young women have been swept away,” Blake said.
Russell Winslow urged those who read about Kyra’s life to reflect rather than act.
“Don’t feel a need to rush out and say anything,” he said. “Sit back and take it in. Find what it means to you. What did she mean to you, if you knew her or not?”
Her father also asked people to honor Kyra by living life the way she did.
“Pledge to make somebody smile. Pledge to make somebody laugh. And be carefree, if only for a moment. If for nothing else, set aside all negativity. All of it.
“If everybody would act as if they could be better today than they were yesterday, this world would get just a little bit better each day. And that was Kyra.”
Mia Laube can be reached at mia.laube@stthomas.edu.
Song Johansen can be reached at song.johansen@stthomas.edu.
Joey Swanson contributed to this report.