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MOBILE, Ala. -- Here are highlights, edited for a general audience, from the Pretty Things Peep Show burlesque troupe's performance at the Alabama Music Box on Nov. 20, 2009.

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Krisanna Roberts, 15, dies after battle with cancer

Friday, November 06, 2009

By KIM LANIER

Staff Reporter

Thanks in part to the movie "Pollyanna," seventh-grader Krisanna Roberts spread love and positive energy to those around her, wishing them a "sunshiny yellow day" despite struggling herself with an aggressive form of brain cancer.

Krisanna, a Mobile resident and student at UMS-Wright Preparatory School, died Wednesday afternoon at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn. She was 15.

Her fellow students were devastated by the loss but remembered the good times and their friend's uplifting nature, said Dana Stewart, a middle school counselor at UMS-Wright, where Krisanna's mother heads the drama department and theater guild.

"She was an incredible young lady," Stewart said. "Everyone thought she was truly an angel on earth."

Stewart credited Krisanna with teaching her important lessons: to be thankful for everything, no matter how big or small; to live life to the fullest; and to look for the silver lining and make every day a "sunshiny yellow day."

Krisanna loved to give out hugs, Stewart said.

"She only had one strong arm. But she could wrap that one strong arm around you and squeeze you so tight, it almost took your breath away," she said. "Her hugs were magical. She could sense when you needed a hug. It was almost like medicine."

Said seventh-grader Alaina Garsed: "She was just an amazing person. ... She never let anything put her down."

Doug Barber, principal of the middle school at UMS-Wright, said that Krisanna dealt with her illness with grace and always came to school ready to forge ahead with her studies.

"Her parents required that she be treated like everyone else — no special treatment," Barber said. "She wanted to be just like everyone else, and everyone treated her as such. Students respected her for that."

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