Kenny Huizenga, who died at Valley Hospital in Palmer one week ago, stood but 4 feet 4 inches tall.
On Wednesday night, 600 or more friends and family members packed the Egan Center to remember a man with the heart of a giant.
It was standing room only. Extra chairs had to be set up in the back of the banquet room, but still there was not enough space, and people spilled into the hallway. Rows of tables were decorated with flowers from loved ones. Easels held giant poster boards showing photos of Kenny over the years. Everyone had a tissue in hand, alternately laughing as they recalled one of Kenny's antics or crying as they realized he is really gone.
Christy Huizenga tells a story about her husband that gives a glimpse of who he was and why so many people loved him. While they were dating, she took him to Texas to meet her parents. Her father, Dale Peterson, thought he could get acquainted with his daughter's suitor at a football game.
Instead of a tete-a-tete, Kenny spotted someone he knew -- right there in San Antonio, thousands of miles from his Anchorage home. Then someone else. Then another old friend. Before long, he was chatting with everyone around him, taking time out now and then to cheer on the team. When they came home, Christy asked her dad if he'd gotten to know her beau better. Dad couldn't say because he hadn't got a word in edgewise.
It's not a unique story. Huizenga, perhaps best known by sports fans for his 1995-to-1998 tenure as equipment manager and trainer for the Anchorage Aces hockey team, has been popular since 1980, when he arrived in a student at Gladys Wood Elementary School in Anchorage. Most recently, he and Christy were the subjects of "Little Victories," a Daily News article published Dec. 21. It was about the birth of their daughter, Mekenna, and how they faced social difficulties posed by the medical condition they shared, achondroplasia. The couple also was the subject of a Canadian film documentary, "In Our Own Image," which is expected to air on American television later this year.
Earlier media stories portrayed Huizenga as the happy-go-lucky young man who once shaved his head for a sellout crowd at an Aces game and the guy who rode a tricycle around the locker room to get the team psyched for a game. His outgoing personality and ever present smile came naturally to him.
But recently, through taking part in the documentary and sharing the details of the birth of Mekenna, Kenny said he was sharing his "more serious side." As a parent -- first to his son, Rich, and then Mekenna, his and Christy's first child together -- he wanted to deliver a new, more meaningful message of acceptance.
"There wasn't any one thing in particular about Kenny; it was just him being there that makes you smile," said former Aces star Keith Street, who roomed with Kenny for six years during their time with the team. "He helped me through times when I wasn't at my best, and I helped him through times when he wasn't at his best. ... A lot of people didn't see him having a serious side to him -- which he definitely did -- because he wanted to make them feel comfortable."
Mark Whitehurst was Kenny's American government teacher at Dimond High School in the late '80s. After retiring from the Anchorage School District, Whitehurst began working at Alaska Airlines, where Kenny also worked as a dispatcher at the time of his death.
"When Kenny comes into a room, he literally makes it a point to walk in, come by and greet or touch every person in the room," Whitehurst said.
Whitehurst said Huizenga's positive attitude and never-ending high jinks made him one of the most popular guys at school and work.
"Which story can I tell?" Whitehurst asked. "The Kenny that wore the dress during the pep assembly doing a cheerleading skit? The Kenny who liked to tease and joke? Or the Kenny who would always give a greeting but add some sort of barb in there that would make you laugh?"
At the service, friends and families shared their favorite Kenny moments. Christy began with a poem she wrote to Kenny just a few days before he died of a heart attack at the age of 33. Every Valentine's Day, the two chose something special to do for one another, and this year, they chose to write something to each other.
Christy choked back tears as she read the words, describing Kenny as a "teddy bear that I love to snuggle each night," the "tingle in my fingertips," "the butterflies in my stomach when I look in your eyes."
"You are my very best friend," she read, finally breaking down. "Without you, I would be alone."
Photos of Kenny as a child -- blowing out the candle on his first birthday cake, playing baseball, wearing big owl-eye glasses and an even bigger grin, strumming an electric guitar in a rock-star pose -- flashed on the screen. Film footage showed Kenny the sports fanatic as he took part in boxing with the "Rocky" theme playing in the background. It flashed scenes of an exhibition basketball game during which Kenny, No. 54, not only pulled down his opponent after shooting the ball through the hoop but then went on to pummel and body-slam his adversary as he lay on the ground. It was all in fun, and the fans roared with laughter, knowing that Kenny, always the showman, was entertaining them.
A wake at Chilkoot Charlie's, one of Huizenga's favorite hangouts in his younger years, was planned for after the services. Huizenga was a fixture at the Anchorage bar in the '90s, and he even danced in metal cages that were used as props. Chilkoot's is where all the PG-rated stories would be shared, said Bob Lester, one of Kenny's best friends, who spoke at the service.
Lester said he wasn't sure which stories were suitable for telling at a memorial but came up with three:
"One night, we went to Chilkoot's. The end."
The attendees hooted.
"Then there was this night at 'Koots," he said. "The end."
Then they roared.
"I never thought I'd live to see Kenny do that," he continued. "It all started when ...The end."
The crowd applauded, and laughter filled the room.
That's the thing about Kenny Huizenga, said Julia Osborne, who worked with Kenny for the last year and a half at Alaska Airlines in the operations department, which is responsible for managing weight and balance in the planes. He had a knack for making people laugh. Her voice cracked and she paused as she tried to recall her shifts with Kenny.
"Kenny was the type of person that you could confide in about anything, and he would never judge you about anything," she said. "He was always upbeat, and you never had a bad day when you were working with him. Anytime he was around, there were always extra people in the office."
Osborne said Kenny and his co-workers played pranks on each other constantly, which made coming to work "something I looked forward to every day I knew he would be working."
Around last Christmas, Kenny and co-worker Kim Bender made a bet on a college football game. If Bender lost, Kenny would be granted hourly hugs, a pet peeve of Bender's, who did not want to be hugged. Kenny won and, every hour, the entire crew would remind him to get in his hug while Kim rolled her eyes in defeat.
Now Bender misses those hugs.
"Everyone's been going around giving her hugs now," Osborne said.
Kenny was born Oct. 1, 1970, in LaGrande, Ore., to Buck and Jean Huizenga. He graduated from Dimond High in 1988 and worked briefly as a professional wrestler under the name Little TNT. He was affiliated with Little People of America, an organization for people of short stature and the same organization through which he met Christy. He also worked with Santa C Productions as Jingles the Elf during the holidays, endearing him to countless children.
His death was sudden. Although dwarfism can cause medical problems, a predisposition to heart attacks is not among them.
The Rev. Mark Conrad, as he talked about the life of this man who captured the hearts of so many, said he feels blessed to have known him.
"Kenny was one of those rare people," he said. "He had that smile that could come on and light up the room."
Daily News reporter Melissa DeVaughn can be reached at mdevaughn@adn.com.
MEMORIAL CONTRIBUTIONS can be made to the Huizenga Family Memorial at Alaska Airlines Employees Federal Credit Union, 1048 W. International Airport Road, Suite 102, Anchorage 99518. For information, call 563-5335.
