Destiny Hosmer
Online Content Editor
Grishma Rimal
News Editor
Troy University student Kenneth Collins Jr. died after a head-on collision that occurred the morning of Sunday, Nov. 8.
According to tuscaloosanews.com, Collins was the driver of a 2013 Ford Fusion that collided head-on with a 2005 Chrysler 300 driven by Eureka Edwards Ford, 39, of Newbern.
Collins, 21, of Faunsdale died while being transported to the hospital, according to Alabama State Troopers. Ford was transported to Druid City Hospital Regional Medical Center for treatment of her injuries.
Collins’s passenger, 20-year-old Frankelle Tuihtre Hampton of Uniontown, died at the scene.
The crash occurred at around 6:50 a.m. on Alabama 69 near the 120-mile marker, approximately one and a half miles south of Havana.
Collins enrolled at Troy in the fall of 2012 and was a senior graphic design major.
Reginald Waller Jr., a senior graphic design major from Tuscaloosa, remembers Collins as a creative, well-rounded person.
“I met him through a bunch of mutual friends, and we all lived in Alumni Hall,” Waller said. “We both were artists, graphic designers, and we had a passion for creation and innovating.
“I remember him as a smart, well-rounded, passionate individual who also knew how to balance education and fun evenly.”
Alex Lewis, a senior broadcast journalism major from Mobile, said that he took classes with Collins every semester since Lewis first began his graphic design minor and remembers Collins as a creative and mellow person with a love for music and a good dressing style.
“He had very cool clothes,” Lewis said. “I think what I will remember the most is mostly his creativity.
“Moving forward in my own design career I will just always remember him because it was something he wanted to do, something he was very passionate about.”
Isaac Jennings, a senior sport and fitness management major from Sylacauga, met Collins at IMPACT in the summer of 2012 and had been friends with him since their freshman year.
“As a person he was a really down to earth,” Jennings said. “Pretty much laid-back.”
Jennings said that despite their busy schedule, Collins always made an effort to meet and catch up with him. He said that the thing he will remember the most about Collins is his smile.
“When we got up together, we always laughed and talked. It was always a good time,” he said.
Kenneth Jenkins, a senior graphic design major from Tuscaloosa, also fondly remembered his friend.
“Well, one thing that we always joked with one another about was the fact that we shared the same name and major,” Jenkins said. “He was a person full of life.
“I can say that he was one of those people that if you met him then you would understand why so many people are broken up over his death. It’s just hard to grasp the fact that such a great person had to leave this world so soon. It’s going to be hard going to the Malone building and not seeing him working on his craft.”
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