ST. LOUIS — Jamie Schmidt didn't seek out the spotlight at church, but it found her.
“Every time she opened her mouth you could just feel God's presence,” her friend Shannon Atchley said.
She had the voice on an angel, Atchley said.
Schmidt sang with her at her daughter’s baptism a couple of weeks ago. It was the last time the two sopranos sang together.
“Without her, it's like this little light goes out,” Atchley said.
Atchley said when she learned what happened inside the Catholic Supply store, she wished she could trade places with her friend.
"I know that the world would have been OK if that would have been me, but it's not OK without her,” she said.
She said Schmidt radiated kindness and service.
“We all need that example to strive for to be better people, to just bring peace and love and joy to everyone,” she said.
Schmidt did that by crocheting rosaries for people in her church. Atchley believes she was at the Catholic Supply picking up supplies for another project.
“The world needs more Jamies,” she said.
