Kayleigh Chambers loved music and she heard a beat that was all her own.

“She marched to the beat of her own band, not just a drummer,” said Ellen Chambers, Kayleigh’s mother.

Kayleigh, 20, passed away April 26.

Kayleigh expressed her individuality through not only her music, but her behavior.

“She dressed the way she wanted, she was strong-willed, opinionated, she could be a pain in the butt, but that’s what made her who she was,” Ellen said. “She had a way of making people smile even if they didn’t know who she was. She was not a normal teenager, she was her own person.”

Kayleigh didn’t care what people thought of her, Ellen said.

She was a kindhearted, sweet girl who lit up the room when she walked in, said Michelle Birdsell, a friend of the family and president of Elvis Presley’s Sweet Sweet Spirit Fan Club, which Kayleigh and Ellen were members of.

“When people met her they would gravitate to her, she was real, she was down to earth,” Birdsell said. “She was just a fun loving person.”

Kayleigh was interested in a variety of different activities, she liked to sing, dance, play instruments, write, act, hunt and fish, Ellen said.

“I always said – try anything you want, anything you want to be,” Ellen said. “We always encouraged them to at least try something, because then at least you’ve had that chance to try it out.”

Kayleigh loved to sing, write songs and play different instruments.

“It didn’t matter what mood she was in, she could put a CD in and it would transform her,” said Ellen. “She was in plays from the time she was in kindergarten and singing from the time she could talk.”

Her mother said she remembered when Kayleigh was little and how she even had a passion for singing then.

“She had a little karaoke machine she would carry around and she would sing ‘Don’t go chasing waterfalls,’” Ellen said. “She sang all the time, she loved it.”

Music is something those close to Kayleigh remember about her.

“Songs come on the radio and I just start laughing because they’re ones she used to sing to,” Ellen said.

Being a part of the Elvis fan club, Kayleigh showed her love of singing through the group.

“She loved being up on stage, she loved singing,” Birdsell said. “When she would do it she seemed so much in her element, she seemed like she was meant to be there.”

Kayleigh was always creative, Ellen said.

“You would ask her, how do I word this and she would just write this, it would just flow out of her,” Ellen said.

Kayleigh also enjoyed hunting and fishing with her brother, Lucas Chambers.

“She loved the outdoors and took pride in all of it but at the same time there was the city girl in her, she always dressed up and did good in school,” Lucas said. “She was never a trouble maker, she was always everyone’s favorite little girl.”

Chambers said there are many great things to remember about Kayleigh.

“There’s not just one thing because she was so different than most people, there wasn’t just one thing you could pinpoint that you could love most about her because you had to love all of her, the good and the bad,” Ellen said.