Benefit auction to cover teen’s funeral expenses

Published 10:02 am Friday, November 5, 2010

This Saturday, singing, auctions, food, a yard sale and raffle tickets are all working together to provide entertainment for the community and some financial relief to a family who has suffered loss.

Sixteen year-old Kenneth “KC” Corbin, from Pedro, passed away Oct. 9 of this year and funeral expenses are still weighing on the family. Bobbie Cox and Becky Cox were inspired to do something to help them out.

“This family doesn’t have much,” Becky said. KC was Becky’s nephew and she said his mother, Jamie Corbin, is having an especially hard time dealing with it.

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“When her son died, I figured if we had an auction and just made a little money, it would help out,” Becky said.

The benefit will begin at 11 a.m., and will go until people stop showing up, at the Cannons Creek Grange Hall on County Road 4. Bobbie Cox said there is a variety of items to be auctioned and raffled off, including a $400 gift certificate for deer mounting, a $150 portrait package from Gold Studio, pies and other sweets, as well as more than two truckloads of items she described as odds and ends. Other places donating gift certificates include Auto Zone, Melini Cucina Italian Restaurant, Giovanni’s and others.

“There are many that have helped out a lot,” Bobbie said.

Hot dogs, pizza and chips will be sold and some children are having a yard sale on the outside of the building to help out.

“We wanted to do the benefit because his funeral expenses were $10,000,” Bobbie said. She said the casket alone was $5,000 due to KC’s size.

“I couldn’t imagine losing one of my kids, especially with no insurance,” Bobbie said. She described him as a kid-at-heart.

“He was a 16 year-old from Open Door School. He was very special around here. He visited everybody,” Bobbie said. She is married to KC’s great-uncle.

“He was just a big old bear. He was really special around the community. There wasn’t anybody he didn’t know,” Bobbie said.

“He was fun to be around,” Becky added. She said whatever trouble he had learning in school, he made up for it outside of the classroom.

“He could fix just about anything,” Becky said. “He liked life and loved his family.”

He left behind his mother, Jamie, and his father Kenny Corbin, and his four older sisters, Mary and Kayla Cox and Joanna Callicoat and Shelby Chapman.

The loss has been especially tough on KC’s two cousins, Brittany and Jay Cox.

“My kids are just about lost,” Becky said of KC’s cousins. “They were like brothers and sister.”

“If you saw one, you saw the other two,” Bobbie said. “We called them the three stooges.” Whether fishing or collecting “junk,” She said he was always on the go and didn’t waste a minute of the 16 years he had on earth.

On Oct. 8, Bobbie said KC had been tired and took a nap, and later that evening, he complained of extreme stomach pain. He went to the doctor’s office and then to King’s Daughters Medical Center where they learned his pancreas had shut down.

He was then transported to Cabell Huntington Hospital, but by the time he got there, all of his organs had shut down. He passed away on Oct. 9.

Bobbie said any donation is appreciated. All proceeds from the benefit will go to Phillips Funeral Home to cover KC’s expenses.