kentWHO WAS KENT HEITHOLT?
Kent and baby Kali.
Kent William Heitholt was born on January 4th 1953 in Lawrence, Kansas while his father, Bill Heitholt was playing basketball for the University of Kansas Jayhawks. Later Kent, Bill, Do (Kent’s mother), and Jim (Kent’s brother) moved to St. Louis where Bill taught gym at John Burroughs private school, this gave the opportunity for the two Heitholt boys to receive better educations.
THE EARLY YEARS
Kent showed signs of a keen memory as he was able to memorize all the
presidents prior to 1954. We had a book of pictures of outstanding events in
our country's history and at the very end there were pictures and brief
explanations about each president. You could point to any of the pictures in
order or at random and he would identify them and repeat part of their
information. One we remember was " and tip of canoe and Tyler too!"
Kent was a very good student and loved all sports and was an adequate
performer in football, basketball and baseball. Of course, I, his dad, was a
coach and Kent was able to grow up in the gym and to be around the basic
sports programs.
He was not a natural athlete, but really tried hard to do his best using
his stature the best he could.
Kent had good eye hand coordination and was able to perform at the level
of enjoyment, but he was not natural enough to be able to make big college
varsity teams.
He was easy going, fun loving yet a very caring person. I believe his own
awareness of his lack of natural talent lead him to respect the importance
of the participation of the lesser athlete as well as the obvious glory given to the superstars.
Kent's academic record would speak well as he scored well over the 1000
mark in SAT scores. Ironically, his strentgh was in math and he ends up in
jouranalism. His verbal scores were not as high as his math scores, but he
was able to become an efficient sports reporter and a very paricular sports
editor.
(-By Bill Heitholt)
After high school Kent attended the prestigious University of Missouri’s School of Journalism in Columbia, Missouri. Kent grew up surrounded by sports. He played basketball and football as a teenager. But he found himself being able to write about them better than play. Later on in life he developed a love for golf. During college Kent met Deborah Evangelista, who was studying social work. After many proposals, Deborah finally said “yes” and Kent and Deborah got married on December 21st, 1981.
Kent and Deborah Heitholt
A bit over a year later, on January 20th, 1983, Vincent Kellen Heitholt was born in Nashville, Tennessee. At the time Kent worked at the Nashville Banner (now defunct newspaper). Three years later on October 24th, 1986, Kali Rose Heitholt was born in Nashville as well, but soon after Kali was born the family moved down to Shreveport, Louisiana. Kent worked at the Shreveport Times for almost 10 years as a sports writer and sports editor.
In 1996 Kent was offered a job at the Columbia Daily Tribune as the sports editor. Kent and Deborah enjoyed their time in Columbia so much during their college years and thought that Columbia would be a great place for the kids to go to upper secondary school. They also thought Columbia was safer than Shreveport and in October of 1996 they moved the family to Columbia. The first few months of living there, Kent and Deborah would drive the kids around Columbia, down what they called, “Memory Lane”, telling them stories of how they met and the kinds of houses they lived in during their college term.
Vincent graduated from Hickman High School in June 2001. After high school he worked at the Tribune (in the sports department, he typed up the really small scores) and various other jobs. Kali in 2001 was sophomore at Hickman, and Deborah was a case manager at Central Regional Center.
On November 1st 2001 Kent was taken from the world. He was murdered and no one knows why anyone would do such a thing. But he is remembered in our hearts forever. His family misses him, but stay strong remembering him. They wish for anyone with memories or stories of Kent to please add them to the guestbook of this site.
-The Heitholt Family
What we miss.
I
think the most important thing I miss about my dad is that he was my
friend. And I trusted him. I remember discussing many trivial things
with him that I thought were important at the time and he would talk to
me as an equal, not as a child. I was always very proud of him. He
often came to talk about the paper to my school, I thought it was cool
to have a dad that was published. What was even cooler was him helping
me with papers. He never wrote them for me, but he helped me, and he
taught me things too. The other day when I was writing a response to a
film for school and I was talking about the American dream and all I
could think about was sitting down with my dad just a few years before
and him explaining to me what that dream was. And I think my dad was
trying to live it too. He had two kids that he loved so much, and he
wanted the best for them, yet he worked his whole life to get where he
was. A successful sports editor. To me I find it sad that my dad is
seen so much as a victim now and not a great guy. Because to me he was
the guy that introduced me to music (oh, he was totally cool, he liked
the Smiths and Jethro Tull!) and took me to concerts, sometimes out of
state to see these bands that meant so much to me at the time. My
friends even thought he was cool. I miss my dad a lot, but I knew him
for 15 years, and for that I am lucky. It just saddens me that not
everyone will get to know him like I did.
served. They are brilliant and compassionate individuals. I would like to
thank friends at The Trib. Especially Jim Robertson. I would like to thank
my friends at CMRC. Kent's tree is getting tall and strong. I was deeply
touched by the kindness of others. I felt uplifted by your prayers. I
believe Kent is in Heaven. He is telling his funny, entertaining stories,
and getting a lot of laughs. He is playing golf as much as he wants, and is
fairly good at it. He doesn't need to frequent the buffet table, since he
is no longer hungry. But, he has fond memories of them. He doesn't have to
worry about finicky computers, or doors that won't let you out, after you
slam them. He is watching over us, with all the sweetness that was in
him, here on earth. Kali and her friend Muzzy, did a great job on this
website.
Please, share a memory of Kent, it would mean a lot to us. Go in peace and love,
Deborah Heitholt now lives in East Texas and works in the social work field still.
Vince Heitholt is in his sophmore year at University of Texas- El Paso.
Kali Heitholt graduated from Hickman High School in 2003; she is a first year student at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Bill and Do Heitholt live in Cuba, Missouri and Bill plays golf everyday, while Do works as an accountant.
Contact them at: