By Scott Allen
The Scene staff
Sixteen-year-old DaVon Steward saved or improved the lives of nearly two dozen people — after his 2001 murder.
His family donated his heart, lungs and other organs and tissues to strangers who needed transplants.
“A lot of people’s lives got blessed because of this,” said Steward’s mother, Angela Johnson, 51, a Forest Park student majoring in hospitality management. “And I just thought this was the greatest thing in the world.”
The experience led Johnson to become an advocate for organ donation. She gives talks at schools, churches and health fairs.
Johnson also signs up people to be organ donors. Two weeks ago, she and her daughter, Kandiss Hopkins, 32, helped with an event in the Forest Park cafeteria.
They concentrate their efforts mainly on black males, ages 17 to 40. Only about 1 percent are organ donors, according to Mid-America Transplant Services.
“African Americans really don’t do organ donating,” Johnson said. “I’ve heard from a few people that they think they’ll just let you die to get your organs. No, that’s not true.”
General transfer student Bobby Sullivan, 26, signed up at Forest Park to be a donor.
“It just makes sense to me,” he said. “If my body will help someone else after I die, I think it’d be selfish to not donate.”
Young murder victim
Steward, a sophomore at Sumner High School, lived on Russell Boulevard. On July 2, 2001, he was robbed and shot in the head on Shaw Boulevard, near Missouri Botanical Garden, where he was walking not far near his home.
At the hospital, as Johnson waited for news, an organ-transplant advocate came to talk to her. She thought it was “appalling.”
“I didn’t know at the time what it entailed,” she said. “When I was approached, it was in the heat of my son fighting for his life. I didn’t even know why we were there.”
The bullet had destroyed Steward’s brain.
Johnson got a quick lesson in organ donation and transplantation, which are coordinated in St. Louis by Mid-America Transplant Services. She learned that even though her son was dead, his body could save lives.
“There was nothing else to do,” she said. “It was hard to accept that my son was murdered. It was hard to accept that I would never see my baby again.”
Decision to donate
Johnson described Steward as a “good-looking” football player ready for a new season. He was active at Church of the Living God Temple One as a videographer, male chorus member and student in the teen bible study.
An interviewer at Six Flags St. Louis was so impressed with the young man that she created a position for him at 15, an age normally too young for a theme-park employee.
Steward was popular with the girls, and his family loved him very much.
“He was literally my best friend,” said Hopkins, a Forest Park student in the Information Technology Help Desk program, who was three years older than her brother.
“We did pretty much everything together. He actually named my first daughter. I miss him so much. If I could give anything to get him back, I would.”
Hopkins helped her mother make the decision that would save lives — to donate her brother’s organs and tissue.
“He gave so much when he was alive, why not donate his organs?” she said. “It’s what he would have wanted us to do.”
Life goes on
At Steward’s wake, Hopkins and Johnson learned that a teenage girl was pregnant with his child. It was bittersweet news.
Named after his father, DaVon Douglas Steward-Easley is now 13.
“I was there for the birth of my grandson,” Johnson said. “I was there for it all. (Steward-Easley) is very proud of his father.”
St. Louis Police Department didn’t arrest anyone in connection with Steward’s murder, so his family never felt closure on the case.
Instead, Johnson and Hopkins found solace in knowing their loved one’s organs and tissue would help others live in better health.
About a year after his death, Johnson released her information to the 23 beneficiaries of his donation. Several shared their stories with her.
They included a 5-year-old girl who received corneal tissue from his eyes and an 18-year-old who received his lungs. A 72-year-old man received his arterial tissue. After the transplant, the man was finally able to lift and hold his grandson.
Special friendship
The woman who received Steward’s heart had the biggest impact on Johnson. Cindy Vaché — who later married and became Cindy Vaché-Roensch — wanted to meet her donor’s mother.
Vaché traveled from Jefferson City to attend Johnson’s church.
“We passed each other in the hallway and just stopped and turned, and we knew,” Johnson said. “Cindy was a white female. I was blown away. It didn’t matter to me who the organs (went) to, but I didn’t expect a female.”
For Johnson, it was a much-needed, positive experience after the death of her son. She and Vaché bonded and became like sisters.
Johnson attended her wedding and even accompanied her to the hospital. On one visit, she got to see Steward’s heart beating in Vaché’s chest through an ultrasound.
Vaché died in 2009 because of continuing heart complications related to stress. It was a huge loss for Johnson.
“Cindy was a person who couldn’t say ‘no’ to anyone,” she said. “She just would never stop to take time for herself.”
Taking up the cause
Johnson had lost a woman who was both a good friend and a living memorial to her son. The year Vaché died, Johnson began advocating for Mid-America Transplant Services.
Communications Coordinator Justin Phelps worked alongside Johnson and Hopkins at Forest Park. He noted that about 1,400 people in St. Louis are waiting for lifesaving organ transplants.
“The list is always evolving,” he said. “The key thing is an event like this, when people can sign up and become organ and tissue donors. That’s how they lower that list, getting people signed up.”
Beyond organ procurement, Mid-America offers services for donor families, such as bereavement and support groups.
When Johnson is speaking to the public, she asks people to put themselves in the shoes of someone who could die without a transplant.
“What if this was one of your children or one of your family members?” she asks. “What if it was you on the (waiting) list? Don’t be selfish.”
Johnson’s advocacy has provided an outlet for her grief and helped her maintain a connection to Steward, who would be 29 if alive today.
“No mother should lose their child at 16 years old,” she said. “I decided then that I have to … share it. The more I could share it, the better I got. When I think of my son, I smile now. When I think of what he has done for others, I’m proud of my son.”