Douglas Heard

Douglas Heard, a 32-year-old Black man from St. Louis, Missouri, died on June 8, 2008. In the public memorial notices that followed, his death is framed in the language of sudden loss and love—an announcement that he was “called home,” leaving behind a circle of relatives and friends trying to hold onto what he meant to them.

Heard was born February 8, 1976, in St. Louis, the son of Jackie and Diana Tompkins. Those who wrote about his life remembered him first as a family kid—gro ...