Family members remember a Tulsa bank security guard killed Monday

Family and friends are mourning the death of 36-year-old Kenny Anderson, the security guard shot and killed during a robbery at MidFirst Bank Monday afternoon at 71st and Yale. <br/><br/>News on 6 reporter

Tuesday, May 25th 2004, 10:20 am

By: News On 6

Family and friends are mourning the death of 36-year-old Kenny Anderson, the security guard shot and killed during a robbery at MidFirst Bank Monday afternoon at 71st and Yale.

News on 6 reporter Patrina Adger says as one suspect sits in jail and the other one lies in a hospital, the victim's family prepares for Anderson's funeral. "He'd give anybody the shirt off his back, he was that kinda guy!" Tona Collier says her brother Kenny Anderson was that kind of guy, the type to offer help to anyone who needed it.

The 36-year-old worked as an unarmed security guard for years, but had just started working at MidFirst Bank as an armed guard three weeks ago. Tona says Kenny's five foot frame didn't quite fit the "security guard" description. "He might have weighed 115 pounds soaked and wet, just a little guy."

But as a bank teller, Tona says she knows her brother was trying to protect the bank employees and customers during the botched robbery Monday afternoon. Kenny was in the Air Force for a year before becoming a security guard. He had dreams of becoming a police officer, but he was too small.

14-year old Monique Anderson says she begged her father not to take the armed guard position, fearing something terrible would happen. "I kinda figured it was him, but I just didn't say thing about it because I didn't want to believe it." Kenny was recently diagnosed with testicular cancer, but continued to work to help provide for his daughter, his fiancÃ© and her three children.

When Kenny was told he had to cut his hair for his job, he wanted to donate the hair to a good cause. He chose Locks of Love, a group that provides hairpieces to children suffering from long-term hair loss.

And as the family prepares for Kenny's funeral, they say they can never forgive the two men who robbed their family of a loving brother and father. "I'll miss him being there for me when I need him the most!"

MidFirst Bank has established a memorial fund for the family of Kenneth Anderson. Donations can be made at any MidFirst Bank location with checks made payable to: The Kenneth Anderson Memorial Fund, c/o MidFirst Bank.