Alysa Worrell remembers her slain best friend, Jennifer Clemmings, as bigger than life. Even her name needed to be expanded.
"She signed everything 'The Jennifer Clemmings,' " Worrell said. "That's how she was known in Mary Kay," the cosmetics giant for whom Clemmings was a sales director.
And when "The Jennifer Clemmings" entered a room, people noticed.
"She would just spark the place up. She could get a pep rally going in a supermarket. Her presence demanded an explanation whenever she entered into some place," Worrell said.
Worrell and other friends are determined to keep Clemmings' memory alive by creating a charitable foundation she had envisioned to provide clothes to women in need. A kickoff for the foundation Sunday drew about 100 people.
Worrell said the happy atmosphere and "a slew" of donated, dry-cleaned clothes were in keeping with Clemmings' life.
"This was part of a dream and a vision that we had talked for years about," she said.
Clemmings, 32, was killed Jan. 27, 2003 in her home on Martin Road near Stone Mountain. That evening, she had called Worrell's home in Covington "a couple of times." Then the phone rang again. "She must have been able to hit redial, or the phone dropped or some God-given way," Worrell said. On that call, Clemmings and another person, probably a man, could be heard talking.
Worrell and her husband, Rhendardo, were alarmed and called police. Officers arrived to find Clemmings dead inside the home. There was no sign of a break-in. DeKalb County police are treating the case as a homicide.
Police have withheld the cause of death and other details to protect the investigation, said Sgt. Pat White.
Jackie McAnuff, one of Clemmings' four sisters, said she hopes for an arrest because "I want to know why he did what he did to my sister."
Clemmings was the youngest of the family, which moved from Jamaica to Michigan in 1980. At New Buffalo (Mich.) High School, she was a cheerleader, played basketball and ran track.
Clemmings earned a degree in international business from Ferris State University and then moved to metro Atlanta in the early 1990s, McAnuff said. About two years later, her mother and McAnuff followed. They live a few miles from Clemmings' last home.
Clemmings doted on her nieces and nephews, including McAnuff's three children, she said. Clemmings often filled in if McAnuff couldn't attend one of her children's events.
McAnuff called her little sister "a fun person . . . you can't be around her and be sad."
"When she was down, she was down, but when she was up, she was really up," McAnuff said. She recalled walking through a store when Clemmings greeted someone with, "I'm the Jennifer Clemmings, and I sell Mary Kay. Can I give you a facial?"
That drive had earned her status as an independent senior sales executive, running a unit of 56 other sales people. It also provided her the keys to a succession of three Mary Kay "career cars" given to top performers.
She showed the same exuberance with her family, McAnuff said.
"Every time she came to my house, she would give me a big old smooch on my face," she said. "She would not get off the phone or out the door unless you told her, 'I love you.' "
Clemmings would tease her sisters with "I'm going to pray for you" about something they said, but she also was serious about her Christian faith, McAnuff said. On the morning of Jan. 27, she called McAnuff from her car phone. McAnuff was sick, and Clemmings said, "Girl, let me pray for you."
"I was hesitant," McAnuff recalled, "but I said, 'Jennifer, go ahead.' And she did."
That was her last conversation with her sister. The police came to her door about 1 a.m. Jan. 28 to tell her about the killing.
McAnuff said the family readily agreed to donate Clemmings' wardrobe to help Worrell launch a nonprofit organization to "continue at least one of her dreams."
Clemmings and Worrell had been planning both the clothing charity and a business called Women's Workshop to offer advice to women such as new brides. Two days before her death, they had conducted their first workshop for a bridal party, Worrell said.
The clothing charity was envisioned to help women who have been abused, homeless or otherwise disadvantaged and need clothes, makeup and advice for situations such as job interviews. Worrell said the organization, now called the Jennifer Clemmings Women's Clothing Foundation, has gained donations of shoes and hair products from companies and is seeking clothing and services such as dry cleaning and legal aid to set up the foundation.
Clemmings had invited many of her friends to gather last weekend to celebrate her birthday and attend a women's conference at her church, World Changers Church International. Her death prompted them to turn the birthday celebration into a kickoff for the foundation. The Sunday night event at a Buckhead nightclub was held in conjunction with a previously scheduled talent show by Anointed Gift School of the Arts.
Worrell said Clemmings "was always dreaming big . . . not just for herself, but for other people."
As she watched young performers Sunday night, Worrell said, "It was great to see young people walking in their dreams."
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