Kelly Fleming, The Poet Who Dreamed Of Being A Published Author
Daniel Mauser Memorial WebsiteKelly Fleming loved to write poems and short stories.
After Kelly Fleming was killed at Columbine, her mother kept her bedroom perfectly preserved, except for one addition. She added the wooden library chair that Fleming had been sitting in when the Columbine massacre began.
“When we toured the library right after, it was real important to be in the space she had been, to touch the ground where she was lying, to touch the chair I know she sat in moments before all hell broke loose,” her mother, Dee, told The Denver Post roughly a year after Fleming’s horrific murder. “For me it’s more of a comforting thing, just to know she was sitting in that chair. And that was the last happy spot where she was.”
Born on January 6, 1983, the 16-year-old Fleming loved to write and dreamed of being a published author. She penned poems and short stories, and had even started an autobiography. But sadly, her story came to an end too soon.
Columbine High SchoolWith nowhere to hide, Kelly Fleming was killed by the Columbine shooters in the library.
On April 20, 1999, Fleming was in the library, a common place for her to be. Her mother told The Denver Post that she liked to spend her free period there, reading or writing, before joining her friends for lunch.
When Harris and Klebold entered the library, Fleming hid near where Kreutz, Park, Perez, Schnurr, and Townsend were hiding. She heard Klebold shoot at the girls and kill Townsend and she heard Klebold demand to know if Schnurr believed in God. Fleming also heard Harris and Klebold shoot Nowlen and Tomlin. And then, Harris shot Fleming in the back.
“Kelly had dreams and goals,” her grieving uncle and godfather Ray Fleming said at a vigil for Fleming and other Columbine shooting victims. “Kelly aspired to be a writer, a poet, a songwriter.”
