Former radio host Kara Stockton, 44, has died, her family confirmed Friday night.
Rob Stockton, her brother, said the family is not sure of the cause of death and is requesting an autopsy but thinks she had liver issues.
“Me and my mom are still in total shock and can’t really believe it’s real,” Rob wrote in a text Friday.
Stockton spent more than five years at news/talk FM station 106.7, with three of those years as co-host and executive producer with Shannon Burke.
“I am crushed,” said Burke, who expressed nothing but fondness over the years for Stockton. Atlanta-based Cumulus Media sold 106.7 in 2019 and she lost her talk-show gig there.
“She loved that job,” Rob said. “She loved the attention. She was an alpha!”
Stockton, who lived in Smyrna, had most recently been a producer for the daily radio and TV show “Crime Stories with Nancy Grace,” heard on Sirius XM and seen on Fox Nation.
“We are all upset,” Grace said. “I loved working with her so much. She was awesome. She had been unwell and we kept after her to go to the hospital. We are waiting on answers now.”
On Saturday in a phone interview, Rob said his sister went to a doctor in January because of an elevated heartbeat. After tests, a surgeon took her gallbladder out Jan. 26. At the time, Rob said, the doctor found her liver to be enlarged.
Soon, she gained a lot of water weight and returned to the hospital. On Facebook, on Feb. 10, she wrote: “I‘ve had to completely lose all sense of pride. I’m back in the hospital. I can’t sit up or down or walk on my own. They don’t think it’s any complication from the gallbladder surgery, but they’re not sure ... is going on. All I know is major pain, and I’m going to be here for a while. Prayers please!”
Rob, 52, said they eventually took her out of the hospital and she was staying with her mother, Shirley Stockton. She met with an endocrinologist Thursday but died in her sleep Friday.
He said the family grew up in Marietta and they had a happy childhood. “We had a pool in the backyard and we’d be out there swimming every summer,” he said.
She received a bachelor’s degree in media production at American InterContinental University and had jobs as a production assistant at Georgia Public Broadcasting and traffic producer at Fox 5 (WAGA-TV) before joining News 106.7 in 2014.
She started in the newsroom at News 106.7 in 2014 but in 2016, Burke needed a new producer and made her his co host because they got along so well.
“I never had to coach her,” he said. “We’d spitball ideas but she was a natural. We had incredible chemistry.”
He added: “We were a team on air and off air.” They would socialize in the evenings and on weekends with other 106.7 staffers, attending concerts and ball games.
A reception for family and friends is going to be held Tuesday from 5 to 7 p.m. at Mayes Ward-Dobbins funeral in Marietta. The funeral is scheduled for Wednesday at 2 p.m. at St. Andrews United Methodist Church in Marietta.
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