Kansas City mother remembers 37-year-old son killed in shooting as bookworm, philosopher
Keith Gorham was planning on purchasing a fleet of trucks to get a family-owned trucking company off the ground in Kansas City.
Things were coming together, but he ran out of time.
The 37-year-old was one of three people injured in a shooting around 3:15 a.m. April 13 at a home near East 38th Street and Wabash Ave. He was transported to the hospital, where his injuries were discovered to be more serious. He died shortly after.
For a long time, his aunt and brother had wanted to start a trucking company. Gorham, who had read up on entrepreneurship and economic recovery, was brought into their plans in March and was working to make that dream a reality.
Now, the business is at a standstill, said his mother Carolyn Gorham.
According to Carolyn Gorham, 52, her son was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“This whole thing has been a nightmare,” she said.
“I just can’t fathom that I’m not going to see my baby again.”
Half-researcher, half-philosopher
Keith Gorham was born Oct. 18, 1985, in Kansas City, the oldest of four children.
Carolyn Gorham was a single mother who worked long hours in customer service for a computer hardware company and often relied on her eldest son to help take care of the family. He would prepare dinner and put his siblings to bed before she finished her shifts.
“Keith showed his brothers and sisters guidance,” his mother said. “He always was a leader.”
When he started attending Northeast High School, she said, it was hard to find him without his head in a book.
“I’ve never seen Keith involved with any sports,” she said chuckling.
“In his spare time, he would just read and read, then study, study, study and for a kid, I thought that was nutty,” she said.
Keith was a good student who excelled in math and science. When he didn’t know the answer, she said, he devoted himself to figuring it out. To his mother, he became the person with all the answers: half-researcher and half-philosopher.
He always wanted to be challenged, she said, and it made him a knowledgeable person.
But Keith Gorham was not proud of all his decisions. Before finishing high school, he was incarcerated. His mother said he learned from his mistakes and while in prison, he did all he could to continue his education.
He earned his GED and got certified in different trades such as welding. She remembers him, always discussing a new book from the library, including many different religious texts, which sparked a passion for Islam.
“When he came home, he said, ‘Mom I want to be a role model for my nieces and nephews. I want them to know that they have choices in the paths that they choose,’” she said.
‘It’s killing the families’
One of Carolyn Gorham’s last memories with her son is from a March 14 gathering.
She had cooked a spread of food for visiting family members. They sat around the table playing dominoes. Keith Gorham couldn’t resist cracking jokes at his mother’s expense.
“If you’re going to make a joke about me, I’m not going to laugh at myself,” she said. “But he would say it in such a way that it wouldn’t harm you at all and then I was sitting there and I couldn’t stop laughing.”
But the laughter and joyful gatherings have stopped.
Easter weekend, four days after his death, was painful.
“From the time they were kids, we’d always be in one house to celebrate and he’d always make his way home,” she said. “I could hear him coming through the door saying ‘Oh it smells good in here.’”
“He was robbed of getting to enjoy his nieces, his nephews. Robbed.”
In the week since his death, Carolyn Gorham has explained to people she knows that gun violence can happen to anyone in Kansas City. She’s spoken to community members about the need to stop the violence.
Her son was one of 11 people killed that week in Kansas City. Seventy-six homicides have taken place across the metro area since the start of 2022, according to data tracked by The Star.
“We need to put the guns down,” Carolyn Gorham said. “Let’s reach out to loved ones. I know all of us have different things going on in our lives, but this gun violence must stop.”
“It’s not just killing a person, it’s killing the families as well.”
Keith Gorham will be buried April 29.
