Remembering Kelly Plasker

LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) - She was a bright spot in our weekend mornings, arguably the prettiest on our First Alert Forecast team.       

Kelly Plasker had a passion for sharing the forecast and keeping us safe... in more ways than just the weather.        

Now, our KCBD family is heartbroken over the loss of Kelly Plasker who died suddenly on August 30th.       

For 3 years, Kelly was that spunky weather girl every Saturday and Sunday morning on Newschannel 11.      

What you couldn’t see on TV was a broken heart. I remember one day two years ago when she and I sat and talked in the studio and she told me her world would never be the same. She said, “He was 19 years old, 2 weeks way from turning 20.” Kelly was referring to her son, Thomas, who took his life in February of 2018.      

She said through tears, “With somebody in the house, he still felt so alone that he made that choice.”     

Alone, but loved by a large family and more than 200 who came to the funeral to say goodbye, including his 3 devastated roommates. Kelly said, “So its very difficult for those of us who knew him to comprehend why.”     

Now, this weekend, our sweet Kelly took her own life, a cry for help that she made very public on her Facebook page. But there were many other times that Kelly used Facebook in an effort to help other people avoid the road to suicide.         

According to the CDC, suicide claims 45,000 lives every year and the numbers could be even worse this year.  Ann Marie Casiraghi leads the Lubbock Chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. She warns, “This is a real time where our entire nation and even the world is under a lot of stress, never seen before. So, we’re asking that people, make connections with others.”                      

The KCBD family extends our sympathy to Kelly Plasker’s family. But we also express our gratitude for the time we shared with Kelly, someone who always brought joy to the newsroom.       

*The attached video shares more of Kelly’s personal struggle in words that she wanted to share.

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