Remembering Kellie Pyle: A caregiver at heart, she ‘was the personification of goodwill and selflessness’

Kellie Pyle had a heart of gold.

It’s how those who knew her described her, said her cousin, Billy Pillar-Gibson. She was always there for him personally, even from miles away.

“If I had something going on … she could turn it around,” Pillar-Gibson said.

In a tribute to his mother online, Pyle’s son, Kevin Pyle, wrote: “My mother was the personification of goodwill and selflessness. Led by her always so kind heart, my mother would stop at nothing to make sure those around her were always cared for, loved and taken care of.”

Pyle, who was 52, was among six Walmart employees killed Nov. 22 during a mass shooting in Chesapeake. The Norfolk native, who attended Norfolk Catholic High School, had moved to Indiana with her family in the 90s, then on to Kentucky where she raised her two kids.

“She was a great mom,” Pillar-Gibson said.

Talking about Pyle’s children, Kevin Pyle and Kaylin Bruce, he said: “They’re both centered. They’re both stable. They have great heads on their shoulders. She did a really good job with her kids.”

In his tribute, her son wrote: “She put her full heart into raising us and giving us the world. Family was her everything.”

And her 2-year-old granddaughter, Harper, was the light of her life.

“Harper was her biggest dream come true,” Kevin Pyle said. She would Facetime her every night.

Pyle returned home to Hampton Roads this spring to start a new life with her high school sweetheart, Brian Baker. The two were engaged.

“We worked the same hours, and outside of work we spent every minute of every day together,” Baker said.

“Kellie had so many plans for us and her family for the future, but they were cut short by the senseless act of another person,” he said.

Baker said he and Pyle reconnected last year, after 33 years apart. When he returned from Minnesota to care for his mother, Pyle decided to join him. Though she moved to be with him, Baker said she also came to help him care for his mother.

Pyle was a natural caregiver, her cousin said. She took care of her mother and father, who died in close succession, then her older brother, who died earlier this year.

Pillar-Gibson also remembers Pyle for her sarcastic sense of humor, and the back-and-forth jabs they exchanged via text that always had him smiling.

Only two years apart, the two grew up together, going on family vacations together and getting on each other’s nerves the way only best friends do. Pillar-Gibson remembers “torturing” Pyle by constantly singing “Over the Rainbow.”

“She hated Wizard of Oz,” Pillar-Gibson said, laughing at the memory. He said Pyle was more like a sister than a cousin to him.

Pyle’s family and friends also remember her for her adventurous side.

“Every rental car she would get was always a new kind of sports car,” her son said in a Facebook post. “I remember riding in a 2021 Black Camaro with her that she rented. She referred to it as ‘The Black Mamba.’”

Her loved ones are now trying to process their loss and grief.

Pillar-Gibson says he feels lost, still sometimes waiting for a text or phone call from her.

“The shock of her death is haunting,” he said.

He said his heart breaks for all the milestones she won’t get to witness.

Baker said: “We are left confused trying to pick up the pieces.”

Nour Habib, nour.habib@virginiamedia.com