Daily Egyptian Spring 05
Two SIUC students die over spring break
Andrea Zimmermann
Daily Egyptian
Two SIUC students died over spring break, one from a massive heart attack and the other from injuries sustained in a single-car accident.
Tameka Stake, a junior studying rehabilitation services from Freeport, died March 13 of a massive heart attack after leaving a house party in her hometown. Stake, 23, leaves behind two children, son LaShawn, 3, and daughter, Kiomi, 6.
Kara Gruenenfelder, an agriculture education senior from Highland who was set to graduate in May, was killed March 10 after she lost control of her 1995 Chevrolet Blazer on a rural road outside of Highland. Gruenenfelder was pronounced dead at the scene. The Madison County coroner said she died from massive head injury and multiple trauma.
The two losses left large holes in all the lives they touched and their sudden deaths left many close to them in a lurch.
Stake's mother, Laurie Horton, said the last thing her daughter told her was not to worry about her going out with friends.
"She told me, 'Momma, don't worry, everything is going to be fine. I'll be the first one you see in the morning,'" Horton said. "Of course, that wasn't the way it happened."
The 23-year-old, who lived with her two children and mother in Carbondale, had made a last-minute decision to travel up to Freeport to see friends and family on March 10.
Stake and two other family members left a house party late that Saturday night in Freeport after gunfire broke out. Her cousin, who was in the car with Stake, noticed she had slumped over as they drove away from the party.
Stake had a pacemaker implanted in her heart about 12 years ago, but family members say the battery in the pacemaker still had power in it.
Gruenenfelder's death also left many of her friends at SIUC feeling lost. Stephanie Schilling, who graduated from SIUC in December, was very close with Gruenenfelder and spoke with her almost every day. Gruenenfelder's family said the last outgoing call from her phone was to Schilling.
"I constantly look at my phone and think maybe Kara called me or that I need to call her, but I know I can't," Schilling said. "I know her phone is still on, so I'll call her phone and listen to her voicemail."
Gruenenfelder was a student teacher at Wesclin High School in Trenton, which is about 40 minutes east of St. Louis.
Friends described Gruenenfelder as a funny, vivacious woman who believed it was her job to make sure everyone around her was happy.
"We all know she would have make a wonderful teacher," said Jason Conner, an agriculture education major who is also student teaching. "She had a knack for making you interested in what she was teaching and as a friend, she had a way of making your day better."
Krystal Gruenenfelder said her youngest sister was "the queen of jokes and the queen of sass." She said the family was floored by the huge turnout of SIUC and Carbondale people who came up for the funeral on Monday. She said there were also a lot of students from her sister's class she taught at the high school.
"She was a light in everyone's life in one way or another, and she proved that to us," Krystal Gruenenfelder said.
Conner said some of Gruenenfelder's SIUC friends are trying to create a garden in memory of their fellow student. Gruenenfelder loved horticulture, especially gardening.
During the funeral, the family collected an $850 memorial, which they donated to Highland High School for a scholarship for a female student interested in agriculture.
Rene Mettler, a senior in agriculture education, said Gruenenfelder was not a typical agriculture student because her parents did not own a farm. Rather, she fell into agriculture after taking a class in high school. Mettler said her one regret was that Gruenenfelder never had the chance to teach her own class.
"But I'm not too worried about her because she was a great person and I'm sure she is in a lot better place than we are," Mettler said.
Jennifer Jones, who is also studying agriculture education, said many of her friends, including herself, are going to become teachers and Gruenenfelder was an inspiration to all of them.
"We're going to remember her and we are going to use the things we learned from her in our teaching," Jones said.
Gruenenfelder was involved in many clubs, including the Horticulture Club, SIUC Collegiate Future Farmers of America and Agriculture Education Club. She also worked as a dairy hand at the SIU Dairy Farm.
Sebum Pense, an assistant professor in the College of Agriculture Sciences, said Gruenenfelder was the kind of person who energized whatever group she was in.
"She is leaving a very big hole in a lot of people's lives and in her profession," Pense said.
Like Gruenenfelder, Tameka Stake was also known as the one to make people laugh, and she was also a strong, independent woman. April Jones, a junior studying healthcare management from Kankakee, said Stake always had a smile for everyone and she actually helped Jones learn how to stand up for herself.
"She told me, 'Don't ever keep your mouth shut. Open your mouth, take a stand and stand firm by it'," Jones said.
Stake, who recently received an Eastern Star from the Marion Masonic Lodge, was working to go to medical school and become a psychiatrist. Horton said her daughter had hoped to work with children with learning disabilities.
Jones last spoke to Stake as she left for Freeport. Jones said keeping tabs on each other was part of having such a close-knit group with five other women at SIUC, who considered themselves sisters.
She said after Stake's funeral on Saturday, the "sisters" got together and one asked how they would go on without Stake, who was known as the strongest in the group. In the end, they decided that they had to continue toward their goals because that is what Stake would have demanded.
"It's a pact that we made with each other, to finish school," Jones said. "It's what she would have wanted us to do."
Stake also inspired her mother to go back to school. Horton is now junior studying accounting at SIUC.
Stake's two children have been separated since her death, her son with his father and her daughter with Stake's mother. Horton said the children are more confused by the separation than their mother's death.
Jones said the four women also decided they need to make sure Stake's two children grow up and go to college. Jones said they also have to look after each other like Stake did.
"If she saw us straying from our goals, she would call us together and ask what was going on," Jones said. "Now that Tameka is gone, we got to step up. We know she is going to do something to make sure we know she is watching us."
Last update: Monday, March 21, 2005 at 9:58:24 PM
Copyright 2009 Daily Egyptian Spring 05