Tori Bowie’s Hometown Celebrates Her Life Amid Mystery of Her Death

BRANDON, Miss. — Before she grew to become a three-time Olympic medalist and earlier than she earned the title of world’s quickest lady, Frentorish Bowie welcomed a digicam crew to her hometown, Sandhill, Miss.

“This is where I found my strength,” Bowie, who was nicknamed Tori, stated of the small city half-hour northeast of Jackson.

It was 2016, and at age 26 Bowie was about to make her Olympic debut as a part of the U.S. sprinting workforce on the Rio de Janeiro Games. But first she stopped at Pisgah High School to go to academics and employees and located herself wiping away completely satisfied tears. She beloved being dwelling.

“One day I hope that I can come to Sandhill and there’s this huge sign that says, ‘Welcome to Sandhill, home of Tori Bowie,’” she stated.

On Saturday, the group that took such satisfaction in Bowie was struggling for solutions because it gathered for her funeral and mourned her latest unexplained demise. She was 32.

Her physique was discovered on May 2 by Orange County, Fla., sheriff’s deputies, who have been conducting a wellness test after she had not been seen or heard from in a number of days.

Bowie had been pregnant, however it was unclear whether or not she carried to time period earlier than she died. A program supplied on the funeral service on Saturday stated that Bowie was “preceded in death” by a daughter, Ariana Bowie. An official on the Orange County health worker’s workplace on Saturday who declined to present her title confirmed a “baby Bowie,” however she declined to supply additional particulars.

No reason behind demise has been launched as a result of toxicology assessments are pending, and the workplace stated this week that the assessments might take as much as three months to finish.

Bowie’s final years appeared to have been as a lot a thriller as her demise. Fellow monitor athletes who as soon as skilled or competed along with her stated she had grown distant lately. Many didn’t know her off the monitor in any respect. Al Joyner, the Olympic monitor coach who mentored Bowie starting when she was in her early 20s, stated he final spoke to her within the fall of 2019 on the world championships in Doha, Qatar.

At Saturday’s memorial service at True Vine Baptist Church in Brandon, Miss., a crowd of mourners tried to place apart their questions and concentrate on Bowie’s athletic achievements, her religion and her effervescent moments.

But a way of shock nonetheless permeated the room as tributes have been shared. Even the Rev. Sylvester London, who officiated the service and gave the eulogy, described his disbelief when he discovered of Bowie’s demise from a news alert. “I was shocked, shocked,” London stated. “Then I started to pray.”

Bowie’s path to trace and area fame started in Sandhill nearly by chance. She wished to play basketball at Pisgah High School, however the college required college students to compete in monitor, too, as a result of it was too small to area separate groups for each sports activities. Bowie reluctantly agreed, regardless that she a lot most popular lengthy basketball shorts to the shorter bottoms given to trace athletes.

Without a monitor to name their very own, the Pisgah Dragons practiced by operating round a grassy area. They went on to win three state championship titles, with Bowie competing within the 100 meters, 200 meters, 4×100-meter relay and lengthy bounce.

Still, Bowie’s old flame was basketball. When she was recruited by the University of Southern Mississippi, she turned the tables. She would do monitor and area if she might attempt to stroll on to the basketball workforce, she stated. They got here to an settlement.

“What stood out to me is that she was really tall and lanky,” stated Sonya Varnell, a longtime athletic administrator on the University of Southern Mississippi. “Most sprinters got a lot of muscle on them, and she was tall and thin like a basketball player.”

Varnell was drawn to Bowie, whom she described as a tough employee who was humble and unassuming. Varnell was additionally raised by her grandmother, grew up in the identical county as Bowie and had additionally been a first-generation student-athlete. “She came from nothing,” Varnell stated, “just like me.” She added, “I don’t think she realized how good she was or how good she could be.”

Her biggest potential initially gave the impression to be in area occasions. When Joyner, a 1984 Olympic gold medalist within the triple bounce, met Bowie in 2013, she was being groomed as a protracted jumper. It wasn’t lengthy earlier than he advised Bowie she might be a sprinter on the world stage, too, he stated.

“I told her she’s going to be the next great one,” Joyner stated. “And that was in 2014. I’ll never forget the day she beat Allyson Felix. She told me, ‘Al, you were right.’”

At the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, she earned a silver medal within the 100 meters, a bronze within the 200 meters and a gold within the 4×100-meter relay on a workforce that included Felix.

In 2017, Bowie received a world championship, incomes the title of quickest lady on this planet after a dramatic 100-meter race that she received by one-hundredth of a second by leaning her head ahead throughout the end line.

Her desires expanded. She wished to get into modeling and was occupied with working with vogue manufacturers, and in 2018 she did each. She was featured in a Valentino marketing campaign and a Stella McCartney-Adidas collaboration. She walked in New York Fashion Week. She was photographed by Annie Leibovitz for Vogue and was featured within the ESPN “Body Issue.”

She wished to make use of her fame for good, her pal Antoine Preudhomme stated. When she was a toddler, Bowie and her sister, Tamarra, who’s 11 months older, have been handed over to the foster care system by their delivery mom, Bowie advised reporters. Their paternal grandmother, Bobbie Louise Smith, gained authorized guardianship and raised them.

Bowie wished to point out up for foster youngsters, Preudhomme stated. Together, the pair would go to foster properties throughout Florida and Mississippi three to 4 occasions a yr to ship Christmas items and sometimes problem youngsters to foot races.

Tanyeka Anderson, a program director on the Mississippi foster care supplier Apelah, remembers a 2019 go to from Bowie. She stated: “For a person of her magnitude to come help? To come give back to our children? That’s a very special thing.”

She stated Bowie gave a celebration for the youngsters that included dancing, and stayed for greater than 4 hours. “She was very vibrant, very happy,” Anderson stated.

But then one thing shifted. Bowie was all the time personal, mates and former coaches stated. But up to now few years Bowie misplaced contact with lots of the individuals who had been a part of her athletic rise.

Varnell and Joyner discovered their texts and calls unanswered and unreturned. Varnell hoped she was busy. Joyner hoped she was coaching for the following large factor, maybe a comeback after her 2019 look on the world championships, the place she positioned fourth within the lengthy bounce. Bowie’s Instagram web page, which had been pretty lively, was final up to date in October 2019.

She final raced in a 200-meter occasion at a dash sequence held in Montverde, Fla., in July 2022. Bowie attended Full Sail University in Florida within the fall of 2022 till her demise, her household obituary stated.

During visitation on Friday, many mourners heard Bowie’s voice once more for the primary time in years, smiling as they watched her races and interviews being performed on a tv above Bowie’s coffin.

Her snort, all the time infectious, reverberated across the room as some shook their heads in obvious disbelief.

“When I’m back in Sandhill,” Bowie stated in a 2016 video, “I feel free.”

The funeral procession on Saturday adopted Bowie again towards Sandhill for her burial. The cemetery isn’t removed from an indication that was put in in 2018. It reads: “Welcome to the Community of Sandhill, Home of Olympic Gold Medalist Tori Bowie.”