“How you can build a life for yourself, and how quickly your life can just be taken away. “It shows how quick life can change,” Dawn Shepperson-Bernard, Reggie Shepperson’s mother, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "As a mother, I feel so blessed and proud because that's all I wanted in life was to raise my son right.Shepperson, a Southwest Airlines flight attendant died last week after having tested positive for the virus in early July, KDFW reported. “People that I don't even know, once they find out I'm Reggie's mother said, ‘Ma’am, you did a beautiful job. Just very fun to be around."ĭawn Shepperson said Reggie, whom she raised on her own after his father died when he was 14 months old, made her proud every time she walked through a Southwest terminal at an airport. "But he was just like a teddy bear, so sweet on the inside and very, very loving. "That New York exterior can come off hard and all that," he said. Travis Pittman, another Las Vegas-based flight attendant for Southwest, met Shepperson when he relocated to Nevada from Tampa in 2016. "He loved travel, and anybody who knew him knew he loved his mother," Lee said. His mother said that was one of his last work trips for Southwest before he tested positive. In June, he took his mother along for the ride. Shepperson's Facebook page shows his travel adventures, including several work trips to Hawaii. "He loved working, and he loved the perks." "He was hitting the skies right way, using his benefits," Lee said. One of the first trips, Lee recalls, was to China. Shepperson started using his employee flight perks. Kiki Lee was in Shepperson's flight attendant training class in 2014 in Dallas, where Southwest is based.Īfter five weeks of training, she and other newly minted flight attendants just wanted to go home. He never tested positive until July, she said.Ĭo-workers called Shepperson a high flyer: He picked up more work trips than most, partly to make money, partly to travel wherever he could. Shepperson worked throughout the pandemic and was pulled from work several times because of COVID-19 exposure, Hildreth said. 'She needed the money': Family grieves loss of Phoenix flight attendant, 79, from COVID-19 'Reminder of this pandemic's reach': Two JetBlue employees died of coronavirus complications on the same day The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, which represents flight attendants at United, Frontier, Spirit and Hawaiian airlines, among others, estimated that 4,000 flight attendants across all airlines in the USA have contracted the virus and 20 have died.Įarly in the pandemic: American Airlines flight attendant dies of coronavirus, elevating fears in the industry Southwest and other airlines have not released statistics on the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths among flight crews. However, vaccinated people who have breakthrough infections are much less likely to get severely sick or die. A small percentage of people who are fully vaccinated will still get COVID-19 if they're exposed to the virus that causes it, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "Out of respect for the family, we do not have additional information to share."ĬOVID-19 vaccines are highly effective, but they’re not 100% effective in preventing infection. "We are heartbroken over the loss of our Southwest employee," King said in a statement. Shepperson's mother said the airline reached out to her, and Hildreth said Southwest contacted her after Shepperson's death and pulled her from a work trip, so she could fly home to Las Vegas Wednesday. Southwest spokesman Brandy King confirmed a Las Vegas-based employee died Tuesday but declined to provide details. Southwest Airlines flight attendants Marcia Hildreth and Reggie Shepperson often traveled together for work.
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