ROBERTA, Ga. — Loved ones of Prishanda Gemisha Colbert gathered to remember her life on Thursday, only a week after she was shot dead at the Roberta gas station where she worked.
Over a hundred people showed up to the Salem Baptist Church to honor the loss of their loved one. To many people in the room, they knew her as "Pumpkie."
They filled every seat in the church, and they brought in extra chairs for the large crowd congregating in front of her open casket.
Relatives and friends sang hymns and shared stories about their favorite memories of her. Some wore custom-made shirts commemorating her.
They prayed for peace, and they prayed for Pumpkie's kids, too. She was a mother of three.
Pumpkie was buried next to her cousins, aunts and uncles in her family's church cemetery over a week after she was shot and killed at work on Nov. 28.
"A beautiful person, just a beautiful person," her auntie Betty Rogers said. "And, she lived life. Even though she had obstacles, she never did give up."
"In spite of whatever the life of this life brought in her life, she kept on going," Pastor Maurice Raines said to the congregation. "You know why she kept on going? Because she loved her children, she loved her mom and dad — she loved her family."
Anyone who knew Pumpkie says she was a generous woman of faith with a heart of gold, her mother Beverlyn Jordan said.
"She loved her children very, very much," Jordan said. "We really miss her."
Roberta is a town of about 1,200 people; Pumpkie's family has lived in the city for generations, including her three kids who now survive her.
Pumpkie's auntie Doris Traylor said the whole family — including Colbert's mom, dad, uncles and aunties — will help raise her kids. She evoked the saying it "takes a village."
"If she needed an extra hand, they were gonna make sure she received it," Rogers said.
A support system for a person who supported anyone and everyone, especially the folks who came into her store. That even included people she didn't personally know, folks emphasized.
"A lot of us have said maybe, 'Why did she stay at the store?'" Pastor Raines said at Pumpkie's funeral service. "That was her guard, that was where she was supposed to serve. That was where she was supposed to meet and greet people, that's where she was supposed to be a help to somebody. But I must ask us today, who are we helping?"
Raines said he remembers Pumpkie as perseverant.
"Just remember to love your family, no matter what you're going through, always have a smile on your face, and don't blame the world because not everybody is dealt the same hand," Rogers said. "But, whatever hand you're dealt, just make the best of it."
The Crawford County Sheriff's Office said officers responded to a 911-call about a person on the ground outside the Pleezing Food Store just before 6 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 29.
They found Pumpkie bleeding from a gunshot wound, and she died at the store, according to Sheriff Lewis Walker.
Eyewitnesses described a man at the scene, according to the press release.
Within hours, Upson County Deputies arrested 22-year-old Ryan Lee Teal of Thomaston.
Teal is charged with murder and armed robbery. As of Dec. 7, he is still at the Crawford jail.
If you have information about the case, you can reach out to the GBI at 478-987-4545 or the Crawford County Sheriff’s Office at 478-836-3116.
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