``I was way firm. I taught him at an early
age, I could only give him what he needed, not what he wanted.''
Shirley Irby Garnett
``I am the mother,'' Shirley Irby Garnett,
47, confirms at her front door. She usually refuses interviews. She says
others twist her words, and she plans to write a book of her own about
her son. She closes the door after opening it just a crack.
Three days later, she has changed her mind.
She opens the door, revealing her living room, where the windows are hung
with lined, perfectly tailored drapes she has sewn.
``Would you like to see his room?'' she
asks, eyes flashing, face suddenly open and animated. She is wearing leggings
and a T-shirt. She bounds with childlike energy down a hallway in the middle
of the three-bedroom house, past pieces of wallboard and other construction
materials. She says Kevin is paying for a remodeling job.
Kevin's old room is still furnished with
a double bed and three framed drawings of black men playing basketball.
But it is a room in transition.
His old stuffed animals, including a favorite
green turtle, are stacked behind the door. High school literature books
are piled on a bureau.
Kevin's old closet is filled now with his
mother's clothes, including a fur coat she says Kevin bought her at Dayton's.
``I'm the only one he will give a blank
check to,'' she says. ``And diamonds, have I got diamonds . . .''
Now that her son is rich, she has dreams:
a porcelain-doll shop of her own and ``Garnett Ridge,'' a place where everyone
in the family would live together.
``I love that Mall of America -- and antique
shops in Wayzata,'' she effuses. ``But too expensive . . .''
She still likes to shop yard sales and thrift
stores. But her son never liked it when she picked up something second-hand
for him, she says.
``He found out one day I was buying Goodwill
clothes,'' she says. ``He didn't like nothing used, always wanted the best.
Right to this day, he won't buy anything used or on sale.''
She is a practicing Jehovah's Witness and
raised Kevin according to her faith. The family did not celebrate Christmas,
and Kevin did not go trick or treating.
``I like the teaching of the Bible and live
by it,'' she says. ``That's what has helped Kevin. If he continues on that
foundation, he'll be fine. He's been trained.''
Garnett is her maiden name. The oldest of
nine children, she worked rotating shifts at a 3M plant and ran a hair-styling
business to support Kevin and her two daughters.
None of her children lives with her now.
She and Ernest Irby, whom she married when Kevin was 7, divorced last year,
after 13 years of marriage.
When Kevin phones from Minnesota, he begins
their conversation asking, ``What up?'' And then, ``You straight?'' --
meaning, ``Do you have enough money?''
``He's my baby,'' she says. ``He just amazes
me -- not above God -- but he amazes me.''
She says she would like Kevin ``to marry
a nice, Southern girl when he is about 30 and have plenty of babies.''
She never advocated playing basketball,
especially as a career. Only after her son was a high school junior and
a rising star did she differ with her husband and support Kevin's choice.
``I'm an advocate of education, always saved
for my children's college education,'' she says. ``My plans were for him
to go to school.
``He's positive, loves people and believes
in giving. I think he would have made a great social worker.''
Garnett with mom and sisters
Garnett in kindergarten