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Friends Recall Teen Who Died After Party

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By TIFFANY LANKES

Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Published: August 1, 2008

SARASOTA COUNTY - Gregory Kennedy had a large circle of friends, and some say he would have done anything to protect them.

He was not one to go looking for a fight, his friends say. But he was always willing to come to their aid when they were in trouble.

"Greg was not the fighting type," said Daniel McGhee, a friend who dated Kennedy's sister. "But he could defend himself when he needed to.

"If you had a problem, he always had his friends' back. No matter what happened."

Friends and family members knew him as a laid-back guy who loved old country music and documentary movies -- not violence.

He liked sports, and was a wrestler in junior high. He played on the freshman football team at Sarasota High School, but stopped school sports after that.

When he worked at Publix, he dated his supervisor's daughter. He and his friends he worked with used to hang out in the store parking lot after work listening to music.

"Everybody was friends with Greg," said Amy Kirst, who watched over Kennedy while he bagged groceries. "He was that kind of guy."

At 18, he still blushed around girls or when adults paid him compliments, friends say.

"He was a little shy, especially around girls or upper management," Kirst said. "He would always blush when we complemented him. He was just one of my favorites."

Kennedy once told his cousin Diana Pugh that he wanted to go into the armed forces or become a police officer when he graduated.

He told her he wanted to help other people.

Pugh believes that is what Kennedy was doing the night he was fatally injured -- helping his friends after a fight broke out at a party.

"Being the person to always help the victims, he became one," she said.

The incoming Sarasota High senior had a large group of friends who came from many different social circles.

Tai Nguyen met Kennedy just a few months ago through another friend, and they immediately hit it off.

"He never wanted to just sit around," Nguyen said. "He always wanted to do something."

People who knew him could not think of anyone who did not like him.

"He never had any problems that I knew of," McGhee said. "The next thing I know he's in the hospital. And the next thing he's dead."

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