An 18-year-old Nicholls student died in a car crash near the Lafourche Crossing on La. 308 May 10 after running off the road and overcorrecting, crossing the centerline and colliding with an oncoming vehicle. Freshman Keia Sumler from Gretna is remembered by friends and family as a loving, upbeat person with a smile always on her face.

“Keia was a person willing to give her all to any person,” Keionne Sumler, Keia’s older sister, said.

Sumler said Keia had many friends from all walks of life and so many attended her funeral services “people couldn’t get in – it was filled wall-to-wall.”

Sumler said Keia, who loved to cheer, had been doing so since she was 5 years old and had just made the Nicholls cheerleading squad. She was also involved in the Nicholls chapter of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Keia was a student worker in University College for the academic advising center. Her supervisor there, academic adviser Lacey Melancon, said Keia had a bubbly, charismatic personality and was very outgoing and friendly.

“Keia was always happy – always smiling,” Melancon said.

Keia planned to major in nursing and had just finished her second semester at Nicholls. She was named to the President’s list for fall 2007.

Keia graduated in 2007 from Helen Cox High School in Harvey.