Kaylyn Pryor remembered for her joyfulness and positivity
Pryor accepting the 2015 Mario Make Me a Model Competition award, with Mario Tricoci, founder of the event and of Mario Tricoci Hair Salons & Day Spas.
A week ago, funeral services were held for ETHS alum (‘13) Kaylyn Pryor who was senselessly gunned down on Chicago’s west side.
Kaylyn was killed as she was waiting to catch a bus in Englewood to return to Evanston, according to the Chicago Tribune.
In late September, Kaylyn won the “Mario, Make Me a Model” competition. She was one of five women selected as a semi finalists from the over 500 that applied, and after a the semi-finalists runway show, won the entire competition. As a winner, she received a modeling contract with Factor Women Chicago, a photo shoot with photographer Matt Ferguson, appearances in tv commercials, and a makeover from Mario Tricoci Hair Salons & Day Spas.
Kaylyn Pryor wasn’t your ordinary wildkit, she had ambition, power, and brought a smile to anyone who crossed paths with her. Unfortunately, on Nov. 2, Kaylyn was shot and killed as she was waiting to catch a bus in Englewood to return to Evanston.
“I don’t remember students who earn the top grades; I remember students who were the greatest human beings,” said Kaylyn’s senior english teacher, Fred Schenck. “My recollection of Kaylyn Pryor is that she was a great human being.”
At Evanston, Kaylyn was a runner for the track team and a member of the poetry club.
“The first time I saw her was at a Black History Month Poetry Presentation,” said Schenck. “She read poems she had written on her own and was wise and powerful beyond her years.”
Much of the poetry that Kaylyn wrote was about Englewood and the last moments before a person’s death.
“I remember thinking what a force she was up there with her intelligence, insight, sensitivity and passion,” said Schenck.
Students remember Kaylyn for her easygoingness and the joy she radiated.
“She was so easy to talk to,” said Kaylyn’s classmate since elementary school, Josh Easington. “I hadn’t been able to sit down with her face to face in nearly two years because of school, but whenever I would text her or hit her up on Facebook, she would speak to me as if we had just seen each other last week.”
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