Tammy Irene Pickett wanted everyone to realize their own potential and strive to better themselves, just as she tried to do every day. With her life suddenly cut short last week, family, friends and co-workers want to see her legacy of learning live on — through a scholarship in her name, so that she might continue to assist others.

“She knew the impact of education and what it would do for you, not just professionally, but personally, that you had gone and accomplished something and bettered yourself,” said Joyce Owen, store manager at Matthews Cards and Gifts, where Pickett worked for the past three years. “She wanted everyone to get an education, because she saw the desire in that. We think (setting up the scholarship) would thrill her. We knew, without a doubt, that’s what we had to do.”

Pickett, 20, was the victim of an apparent murder-suicide during the late-night hours of Sept. 17. The bodies of Pickett and Daniel Drayton, 23, both of Clinton, were found in a dirt parking lot across from Weeks Park. Newton Grove police investigators said Drayton “appeared to be the aggressor” in the deadly incident.

At the time of her death, Pickett was enrolled as a full-time student at Sampson Community College. In addition to her scholastic duties, Pickett also juggled a job at Matthews Cards and Gifts and helped care for small children.

The incident left Owen and others shocked and deeply saddened by the sudden loss of their co-worker. Owen said the 20-year-old was like a member of the family.

She had “a huge heart” and “had high hopes for her future,” a devastated Owen said the day after. Little more than a week later, Pickett’s Matthews Cards and Gifts family are still coping with her loss — and have channeled that mourning into something that might help Tammy’s legacy to live long after her short time on earth.

Pickett’s love for school and wish to see everyone get their education was something that drove her, co-workers said. She gave to everyone and encouraged all around her. She wanted to see others succeed, and would likely delight in knowing that she assisted a student in furthering their education.

To that end, the store has established a fund through which assistance might be given, not only with the cost of Tammy’s memorial service, but also to create something that Pickett very much enjoyed and believed in — education. Through the fund, a scholarship would be set up in her name at Sampson Community College.

“She loved her name, she was named after her grandmother,” said Lynn Owen, who worked side-by-wide with Pickett in Matthews’ Printing and Weddings department and continues to grieve like many others. “Education was so important to her and her mother realized that. She was so focused on education that, knowing that she would be giving toward someone else’s education, Tammy would be smiling from heaven.”

“It still hurts right now, but it will mean a lot in the days ahead,” Joyce Owen added. “This will certainly help someone else.”

Pickett was making plans to transfer from SCC to N.C. State in January, in order to continue her education with the ultimate goal of receiving her doctorate from Duke University. They were aspirations typical of Pickett’s ambition, friends said. In addition to the more than 30 hours each week she put in at Matthews Cards and Gifts, Pickett was a full-time student at SCC and volunteered in the pre-school department at New Life Christian Academy of Clinton.

On top of that, Owen said Pickett would often do “a day’s work” before she even went to work or school, cooking or baking and taking care of her family members.

“She was dependable and she was the same all the time,” said Lynn Owen. “She was caring and very giving. She was an amazing person. She had a pioneering spirit. People she helped would call back to the store and tell me what a fine job she had done in assisting them.”

And she would regularly go beyond her duties within the store to help, including going to Barnes and Noble and purchasing an etiquette book so that she could teach herself how better to cater to customers’ social events. She offered the book for use at Matthews.

And that was just one instance.

Joyce Owen recalled a promise she made to Pickett, one that involved going back to school. Pickett urged Owen to enroll at SCC, something she did last year. Although she was unable to enroll again this year, she vowed she would go to school again.

“Tammy said, ‘that’s all right, they’ll hold the classes for 10 years,’” Owen recalled. “She always encouraged people to go back to school. I told her, ‘I will do that for you.’ I have made that promise to her, and I will keep it.”

The daughter of Renora Ann Malloy and Jarvis Massenburg, himself a history teacher, Pickett enjoyed school and that is how her family at Matthews Cards and Gifts want her to be remembered, co-workers said. She wanted to be a history teacher herself — and not only teach, but write.

On Wednesday, the store where Pickett worked since she was in high school to put herself through school stood dormant from 1 to 5 p.m. so that those who knew her could say good-bye. On the front door was a large ribbon and a sign.

Beneath the ribbon, a card read “In Loving Memory of our Devoted Employee, Co-worker and Friend, Miss Tammy I. Pickett.”

“Yesterday was not any easier than the day before,” Joyce Owen said Friday. “It was hard. It was really hard. Tammy impacted our lives in so many ways. She always did her best, her very best. And we are trying to do our very best to move on and take her spirit with us. That’s what drives us.”

Owen still has a prayer that Tammy gave her on being a working mom going to school. It hangs on her wall to this day.

“We shared many times together,” she remarked.

Lynn Owen shares so many similarly fond memories. Tammy always cared for others and their family members, and even had a screensaver of Lynn’s beloved new grandson, whom she prayed for every day.

“I just miss her, less as an employee and more as the special friend she was to me,” Owen said.

Along with the memories she will keep with her, Lynn has also saved a card she received from Tammy on her last birthday.

“It said, ‘I’m grateful for you being my mom away from home,’” said an emotional Lynn Owen, who pauses and collects herself. “I was more grateful for her.”

Donations over the amount needed to assist Tammy’s family in her memorial service will be used toward the scholarship fund in her memory. Contributions are being accepted at Matthews Cards and Gifts and Matthews Drugs.

Chris Berendt can be reached at 910-592-8137, ext. 121, or by email at sicrime@myclintonnc.com.