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Week In Pictures
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Kentuckians came from all over Thursday to see Bill Keightley for the last time — and most of them had stories to tell about a man they said transcended the title of equipment manager for the University of Kentucky men’s basketball program.
They called him an ambassador for UK athletics.
They called him a man who made even strangers feel as if he were their best friend.
They called him that most uncommon of characters — someone who does good for others when nobody else is looking.
Most of all, they called Keightley, 81, a Kentuckian who will be missed.
“He’s the lasting, lasting vision of UK,” said Toby Myrick of Lexington.
“He was our angel,” said Lois Edmiston, wife of former Lexington postmaster Charlie Edmiston.
The Edmistons drove up from Hilton Head, S.C., to attend Keightley’s visitation at Rupp Arena.
The couple remembered when Keightley, who once worked for the postal service, used to take their son to basketball practice: “That made Ryan feel special, always.”
Keightley’s casket was open with a baseball flower arrangement. (Keightley was a devoted fan of the Cincinnati Reds, and died on Monday while on his way to the team’s opening-day game at Great American Ballpark).
Nearby was a picture of him holding a basketball. A steady flow of mourners, estimated by Lexington Center officials at about 3,000, filed past, then had the chance to sign more than a dozen guestbooks.
About a dozen former and current UK basketball managers came to bid farewell to their mentor and friend. Many of them hugged, sobbing on one another’s shoulders.
Said Joe Piecoro, the former faculty athletics representative at UK: “He just enriched my life.”
Wiping tears from her eyes as she spoke, Larnetta McDowell-Sumo of Lexington said that she had worked with Keightley as a staff assistant in the UK basketball office.
Asked what she would remember, she said: “All the fun. All the good times we used to have. ... He could always make you smile. He never had a bad thing to say about anybody. Never. Never.”
Not everybody who visited had even met Keightley.
“I didn’t know him, but he seemed like a family member to me,” said Yusef Mason, a freshman at Tates Creek High School. “He was always smiling.”
“There are two reasons I’m here,” said Danny Farris of Lexington. “One, he was a Marine, and I’m an ex-Marine. Two, he was a heckuva nice guy.”
And Doug Neal of Lexington had taken time off from work to attend Keightley’s visitation. “Mr. Keightley had dedication not only to UK basketball, but to life,” Neal said. “It’s important to give back to people who give that much to life.”
Brooke Judd, a nursing student, said that she had met Keightley twice and that he was always laughing and telling stories about former UK coach Rick Pitino and the late UK coach Adolph Rupp.
“He was the face of this program,” she said. “He loved Kentucky from the basketball team all the way down to the golf team.”
Randy Lemaster was sitting behind one of the tables, keeping track of the guestbooks. He had known Keightley for 15 years.
“When you see him laying there, the reality hits,” he said. “It’s just a sad day in Kentucky.”
