Editor’s Note: A previous version of this story included an incorrect name. Story has been updated with correct information. 

On Sunday, Charita “Love” Moyers, a longtime member of the WKU community and a pillar of love for many who’ve passed through campus, passed away following a lengthy battle with oral cancer.

Moyers worked at WKU for 22 years at Grille Works in the Garrett Conference Center and the POD at Pearce Ford Tower before she got sick, according to her sister Kim Eytcheson

“For 50 years, she was my big sister in every sense of the word,” Eytcheson said. “While we knew and loved her as a sister, an aunt, a wife, a mother—I don’t want to say it pales in comparison to the way other people knew her, but the light she showed to others and her capacity to love and make others feel love—I’ve never known anyone like my sister in the world.”

Eytcheson recalls running a 10K when she was 9 years old in Knoxville where her sister was there to support her, she was nearing the finish line and the first person she saw at the finish line was Charita. 

“I couldn’t breathe anymore and she came across that line and the officials screamed at her—I’m telling you if looks could kill,” Eytcheson said. “She said, ‘you know what Kim, if you couldn’t finish that race I would have put you on my back and carried you across that finish line.’ That’s just who she was.”

Eytcheson knew Moyers as a sister, but also knows how big of an impact she had on her WKU family. 

”I don’t know how to describe this woman except to say she was the epitome of love,” Eytcheson said. “I want to say thank you to her Western family for treating her and her husband Willy, who also worked at Western, with such love and kindness and respect through the years. Most of all, thank you to all of those students who loved her back, because I know that’s what she lived for.”

Santosh David, a 2004 graduate of WKU, recalls when he first met Moyers. He had no money and was waiting for his meal plans to kick in. 

“[I] first met her when I was waiting on student loans to come through and was stuck on campus with no money for food,” David said. “Someone introduced me to her because she had helped him. Very hush-hush—which felt silly once I met her—she listened to my story, bought my meal for me, and made sure I got fed for a couple of weeks until my meal plan money came through.”

My favorite thing was when she’d draw hearts on our burgers, a reminder of how much she loved her students, David said. 

“She was like WKU’s not so secret morale booster, cheering from the seats and stands,” David said. “Whether you were physically or mentally hungry, she was there for so many of us.”

Students weren’t the only ones affected by Moyers’ way of making someone feel special. Louise Curry has worked for WKU for 36 years and worked side-by-side with Motley for over a decade. 

Curry has known Moyers since their kids played football together when they were in public school and she’s always cared a lot about everyone she encountered. 

“You couldn’t ask for a better friend or co-worker and I’m going to miss her terribly, and everybody else will too,” Curry said. “There’s a good angel going to heaven.”

Moyers’s personality and loving nature was also felt by members of the faculty, who reflected on her fondly with memories similar to students, several of which made posts on blogs and social media regarding her passing.

David Serafini, an instructor in the Department of History encountered Moyers the same way as students encountering her in Garrett Food Court, while getting breakfast or lunch.

“I think there is an irony that we lost Mrs. Charita the same semester we lost Garrett, and maybe if it’s not ironic, it’s appropriate,”  Serafini said.  “She was really someone special for years and years, [her passing] will definitely leave a void.”

Garrett Conference Center is being torn down to create a green space on campus between the top and middle of the Hill, an opportunity someone should seize to memorialize Charita Moyers, Serafini said.

“I think it would be nice out there on that green space—rather the university does it or a student organization does it—I think it would be an appropriate gesture on the part of the university to have something up here to memorialize her and remember who she was.” 

As many years as she was up here, she was a Hilltopper embracing the spirit of WKU we so often talk about; that was her, Serafini said.

Funeral arrangements are being finalized and information about memorial funds are not yet available. This article will be updated as information is made available. 

Dylan Payne can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @dylan_payne.