Friends, family remember New England natives killed in Orlando attack
Izzy Pedraza always harbored dreams of becoming a Michael Jackson impersonator. But it wasn’t until one night at Diva’s nightclub at Northampton that she saw a drag king with the kind of presence and confidence that made her think she could overcome her fears.
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“Out comes this king called Daddy K,” Pedraza said in an email to Boston.com Monday. “So entertaining and really opened up my eyes that I could do something I had always dreamed of doing.”
Daddy K was Kimberly ‘KJ’ Morris, a Torrington, Connecticut native who was a fixture at Diva’s before moving to Hawaii, and later Orlando to help out her mother and grandmother.
Early Sunday morning, Morris was working as a bouncer at another gay club, Pulse, in Orlando, when gunman Omar Mateen stormed the bar and began shooting. Morris, 37, was one of 49 people killed in the worst mass shooting in American history.
A second Massachusetts native, Stanley Manolo Almodovar III, 23, was also killed in the massacre. Originally from Springfield, Almodovar worked as a pharmacy technician and lived in Clermont, Fla., according to his Facebook page.
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His mother, Rosalie Ramos, told the Orlando Sentinel that she had made her son a tomato and cheese dip and left it in the refrigerator for him that night, thinking he’d probably come home hungry. She said he was laughing and singing while posting to Snapchat the night he went to the club. Ramos told the Sentinel her son was a happy person who had a big heart and loved changing the style of his hair, which was dyed on Saturday night.
In videos of Morris performing as Daddy K at Diva’s, she dances across the stage, singling out audience members and gyrating to Justin Timberlake, Gotye and Usher.
Pedraza said Morris’ style and personality was “infectious.”
“Her drag persona was who she was,” she said. “Full of life, energetic, humorous, entertaining, intriguing, and she just captured your attention.”
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The two met for the first time in 2000, and then reconnected backstage at Diva’s one night in 2013. Both were getting ready for their respective performances.
Pedraza said she was star struck.
“I was always afraid I would get made fun of for a girl impersonating the king of pop,” she wrote. “KJ was the one that told me to always be true to myself, and true to my style of drag.”
In a post on Facebook, Diva’s remembered Morris.
“We are deeply saddened to loose [sic] a member of our Diva’s family . KJ Morris who preformed as Daddy K . Our thoughts and prayers go out to her family and friends. We will always remember her smile and her amazing way she lit up the stage in her performances . Keep dancing KJ … And we’ll keep smiling remembering you!!”
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