A decade ago, Katherine Victoria “Kavi” Vance, her Samford degree in hand, took a job as a pharmacist in the local hospital in Demopolis.  Kavi’s mother, Sue Vance, remembered her in a recent newspaper article as “a free spirit who changed her hair color frequently, wrote poetry and painted the rooms of her house bright colors.”  On September 26, 1999, on the way to participate in a friend’s wedding, Kavi’s vehicle overturned and she was killed.  Each Christmas season, Sue and her husband, Lon, along with several friends, place more than 700 candles in the cemetery where Kavi is buried.  Family members and friends of others buried there provide memorial contributions for the project . . . and the gifts provide a living memorial to Kavi through a scholarship fund at Samford.  To date, the fund has gathered in excess of $185,000, providing a bright future for students through the McWhorter School of Pharmacy.   

 

The world is better because of Kavi Vance.    

 
Samford is a leading Christian university offering undergraduate programs grounded in the liberal arts with an array of nationally recognized graduate and professional schools. Founded in 1841, Samford is the 87th-oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. Samford enrolls 5,791 students from 49 states, Puerto Rico and 16 countries in its 10 academic schools: arts, arts and sciences, business, divinity, education, health professions, law, nursing, pharmacy and public health. Samford fields 17 athletic teams that compete in the tradition-rich Southern Conference and ranks 6th nationally for its Graduation Success Rate among all NCAA Division I schools.