All About My Mother
By her daughter, Crystal Ball
My mother was born at home in a small place called Phelps Kentucky, to her parents Mollie and Roosevelt Lester, both of Phelps Kentucky. She was the fourth child of six, she has one brother, Bobbie Ray Lester and four sisters,  Peggy L. Sincell, Loretta L. Barnett, Rose Ann Lester and the baby, Jennifer L. Whitt. She has four nephews and two neices.
She also had three beautiful daughters, myself, Chrystal Gail Ball 18, Alexandria Brooke Norman, 7 and the baby, Leann Norman 6. Her daughters were her whole life, she would have done anything she could have for any one of us. I have seen times that she would do without food or other things that she needed just so her kids could have it. For a living she cleaned houses for people and sold "Home Interior Products". For a year she had a restuarant in Meda Kentucky with her partner, Sherry Hurley.
She first got married while still in high school to Billy Joe Ball in 1982, they had me, her first daughter. They divorced later on that same year and she went to live with her parents and took me with her.
She met a man later on and decided to marry him when I was five years old. They were married 10 years, she was getting divorced from him at the time of her death because she found out that what she had heard when I was fifteen years old was true.....that Franklin A. Norman, my stepfather, had tried to have sex with me many, many times. And that that was why I left home and went to live with my real father.
Then on May 27, 1999, Franklin Norman came home from work and seen that my mother was not there, so he went to her parent's house next door and told them that he was going to his parents and would be back later. On his way there he met up with his sister who began to tell him that his and my mother's phone number had been on a man's caller I.D. box. Franklin knew this man, he and my mother had separated before and she and the man had been talking to each other.
Franklin then left and went to the school where their daughters attended, he met my mother there. He then told her what he had heard about the phone number and she told him the truth, that she wanted him out of the house, to go home and pack his things and leave, that it wasn't going to work out between them. He was very angry, he told her that he would drive the girls home and for her to go ahead and he would follow.
My mother got home first and she went next door to tell her mother that she had finally told Franklin that it was over and for him to come and get his things and leave. She gave her mother Leeann's spring pictures because she was afraid that if she took them home Franklin would take them. Then she walked on home to wait for Franklin to come and get his things out of the house.
Before she got all the way home Franklin pulled up and helped the babies out of the truck. They ran screaming to my grandparent's house saying that Daddy had said on the way home that he was going to kill their Mommy. Before anyone could understand what they were saying, the first shots went off. My grandmother took off running to my mother's house to see what happened, my Aunt Jennifer followed her telling her to stop because he would shoot her too, Jennifer saw her mother was not stopping so she wrestled her to the ground. Franklin saw them and started walking to his truck with a big gun by his side. My grandmother said "Franklin, what have you done, you didn't kill Kathy, did you?"  
He just proceded to his truck shrugging his shoulders like he had no idea what she was talking about and pulled out like a maniac. My grandmother and my Aunt Jennifer ran over to the side walk where they saw my mother laying on her back with her head in her flower bed, blood running from her mouth and every where else, trying to talk, but couldn't. My grandmother yelled to Franklin as he was pulling out "Franklin, how could you?". Then she turned to Jennifer and told her to go get help, she went and called 911, my mother was still fighting for her life. Franklin then proceded to his parents home where he told them he had just killed Kathy and had thrown his gun in a garbage place bside the store down the road. 
By this time the state police had gotten to my mother and tried to help her, but she was to far gone. They had sent another police car after Franklin and had taken him into custody, he gave a full taped confession, admitting to what he had done.
He was held in the Pikeville Jail until he trial. It seemed like it would take forever for his trial to begin, but it finally did, it lasted for about a week. Had it been up to me, he would have been charged with murder, but he wasn't, manslaughter was the charge he was convicted of, he was given a twenty year sentence, but will only have to serve seventeen years. At this moment he is in a prison in Kentucky.
My grandparents are raising my two little sisters and will hopefully be adopting them soon. My mother and I were closer than just a mother and daughter, we were best friends and sisters in one. She was always there for me when no one else was, she understood me like no one else. I love and miss her more than anything in this world......No one can replace what we had. She will be in our hearts forever and ever, we will never forget her. She was a very loving person, she was well known and loved by many. Everyone remembers her smile, her laugh and the way she loved to joke around.......She was the friendliest person anyone could ever meet in their lifetime.......
Crystal Gail Ball
03/12/2001
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