FLORENCE, Ky. — On Dec. 28, Jeanie Kinney was crossing Burlington Pike to get food for the night when she was hit and killed by a driver. Her family is hoping a GoFundMe account can provide the funding they need to lay her to rest.
Kinney was living in a hotel near where she was hit, after the property she was renting in Covington was condemned, her children said. She'd been homeless for some time and stayed at different hotels in the area; although their living situation was unstable, Jeanie and her husband did their best to make enough money each day to pay the hotel stay each night, according to her family.
The family is fundraising to help pay additional costs, like burying their mother at Spring Grove Cemetery near family and purchasing a headstone, and to provide funding for Jeanie's husband to secure housing for himself and their youngest brother.
"She was very giving, even though she didn't have very much to give," said Ashley Hendley, Jeanie's daughter.
However, they don't need the funds for a funeral anymore, after Father John Sterling, the pastor at St. Barbara Church in Erlanger, Ky., offered the family a funeral service at the church free of charge.
"We appreciate him opening his door and giving us the opportunity to use his church for the services," said Christoper Kinney, Jeanie's son. "We really weren't sure where we were going to have it."
Father Sterling called WCPO seeking to be connected with the family to offer help shortly after this story aired Sunday evening. He said he was happy to be watching at the right time, and to lend a helping hand.
"We want to give her a proper burial, being that her life was a constant struggle. Constant," said Hendley.
The crash that killed Jeanie happened Dec. 28, just before 7:00 p.m. Florence Police said the driver hit Jeanie and one other woman, who was flown to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center in stable condition that night.
