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Berkeley said goodbye to Meleia Willis-Starbuck Friday. 

Hundreds of people lined the bleachers at Berkeley High’s Donahue Gym at the memorial for the 19-year-old Dartmouth College student murdered in the early hours of July 17. Before the memorial got underway, Meleia’s mother, Kimberly Willis-Starbuck, received hugs from every direction she turned. 

“All these wonderful people I haven’t seen in so long,” she said during one embrace. 

When she addressed the audience more than three hours later, Willis-Starbuck described her initial reaction to hearing of her daughter’s death. 

“I dropped the phone and proceeded to run around our home screaming ‘Oh my God, what am I going to do, how am I going to live?’” 

“I knew I had to be here,” she said. “I’ve enjoyed hearing stories about Meleia and getting hugs from all of you.” 

Police say Meleia Willis-Starbuck was murdered by Christopher Hollis, a former classmate she described as being like a brother to her. Hollis remains at large. Speculation is that Willis-Starbuck called Hollis for help as she and friends were arguing with a group of men outside her College Avenue apartment. The men reportedly tried to flirt with the girls and when rebuffed, insulted them. 

There was no mention of Hollis at Friday’s memorial, or of Christopher Wilson, another friend of Willis-Starbuck’s who police say drove Hollis to the murder scene. Several speakers called for stricter gun control laws. Willis-Starbuck’s 10-year-old half-brother Zachary said, “I think we should have a gun-free future.” 

There were several lighter moments during the service, including a recording of a young Willis-Starbuck singing “Jingle Bells.” Tears were shed throughout the afternoon, especially in the front two rows where Willis-Starbuck’s closest friends from Berkeley High sat. 

Sean Erick, a high school friend of Willis-Starbuck’s, broke down as he played a tribute to her on his trumpet. Several friends cried out, “It’s OK, we love you.” 

While Oakland recording artist Goapele sang “Closer,” a song Willis-Starbuck used as her cell phone greeting, her friends could not contain their grief. Anthony Washington, a former Berkeley high classmate of Willis-Starbuck, collapsed to the hardwood floor. Other friends consoled Washington and a woman fanned him with a copy of the memorial program. 

Danielle Youngblood, one of the four friends who were with Meleia when she was shot told the audience, “I just want you to know she left feeling loved. We were holding her hand telling her we loved her.” 

Bill Pratt, one of Willis-Starbuck’s teachers at Berkeley High, said she “didn’t participate in classroom discussions, she ignited them. She wasn’t always an easy person to deal with, but few of the beautiful and original people are.” 

Willis-Starbuck, who was attending Dartmouth College on full scholarship, has been remembered as a fighter against inequality. But several friends Friday said she was also bit of a glamour girl. 

Mercedes Hong, who is due to give birth to a girl in the next two weeks, joked in an open letter addressed to Willis-Starbuck, “I imagined you taking her for her first manicure, pedicure, teaching her about clothes, make-up and Tiffany’s.” 

Mayor Tom Bates and City Manager Phil Kamlarz represented the city at the memorial. Kamlarz, who worked with Kimberly Willis-Starbuck for several years, recalled Willis-Starbuck dropping by the office at one point while she was trying to convince her mother she could tour Europe on $200. She got to go, Kamlarz said, but her mother “was writing checks for the rest of the summer.” 

Twenty of Willis-Starbuck’s friends from Dartmouth were at the memorial and told the audience how highly she thought of her hometown. 

“You finally got me to the ‘best place’ in the world,” said Jonathan Lesesne, addressing Meleia. “This was truly her home.” 

Lesesne, who is from Atlanta, where the Willis-Starbucks now reside, said the family home was the only one he had visited in the South that had three different types of pita bread. 

“She taught me what an empanada is,” he said. 

Again addressing Meleia, Lesesne said, “You were our stubborn, free-spirit friend who is now our stubborn guardian angel.” 

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