‘Do Not Forget Felicia’ Friends, Family Come Together To Remember Slain Young Woman

Through chokes, sobs and heaving sighs, Ken Whitehall asked more than 500 people who gathered in Spokane on Saturday to always remember his fiancee.

“Do not forget Felicia,” he said. “Her heart was with God. That’s the way we need to live our lives.”

Felicia Ann Reese, 22, was shot in the head Tuesday night in what authorities described as an apparent random killing.

Her body was found in the grass along Upriver Drive, about a half-mile from where her car had been abandoned. Spokane Police arrested one teenager Thursday and one Friday in connection with the murder.

On Saturday, young people wearing blue sweatshirts that said “The Master’s Commission” - a Christian youth training program that Reese completed - showed people to their seats at the Harvest Christian Fellowship, N1316 Lincoln.

Reese began attending the church during her sophomore year in high school.

When Reese’s memorial ceremony began at 2 p.m., people were crowding against walls and spilling into the hallway. Bouquets of colorful flowers lined the front of the stage.

Uplifting music performed by a 45-person band, complete with chorus, guitar, trumpets and piano, belted forth from huge speakers hanging from the ceiling. People mouthed the words to the songs as they filed in.

Whitehall and several others told stories in remembrance of the energetic, hard-working, young woman who was devoted to her Christian faith.

They remembered Reese cleaning the fellowship’s office every morning on her own time and working behind the scenes to make plays and concerts at the church a success.

Many stories were about her attempts to cook.

“Felicia liked to cook on high,” recalled the Rev. George Wunderlich, associate pastor of the church. “She’d put it on high, put a pan on it, then go get the ingredients.”

Patty Marinos worked with Reese at Dynamic Daycare, W25 Fifth. Once, she said, Reese stood on a patch of ice outside the school to prevent children from stepping onto the slippery surface. To the amusement of herself and the children, Reese slipped and fell.

“She rolled over and gave a big belly laugh,” Marinos recalled. “That’s the Felicia we want to remember.”

Marinos, who is pregnant with a baby girl, told the crowd she planned to add “Felicia” to the baby’s name. “I count myself lucky to say that Felicia was a friend,” Marinos said as she choked back tears.

Reese visited Ken Whitehall’s mother, Sharon, last week to show off her wedding dress. Reese and Whitehall were to be married in six months.

“We loved each other so much,” Ken Whitehall said with a shaking voice. “I miss her so much.”

The stories rolled on and on, sometimes provoking laughter, sometimes tears. At the end about 20 people placed goodbye letters to Felicia on the stage.

When the band ended with a number called, “Worship the King,” the crowd leapt to its feet in celebration of Reese’s life.

People danced and shouted the words to the song, clapping and kicking their feet in the air.