McKinney attended Arrowhead Christian Academy Middle School, where she participated in one of Rivera's plays.
She continued to perform at Redlands High School, involved in "Les Chantenuses," a performance choir directed by Ken Tuttle.
"She loved to sing and dance," Heavrin said. "But her most avid love was reading. She read RGone with the Wind' more than a dozen times in her young life."
McKinney's son, Todd Avery Gunterman, was born in November of 2004. McKinney and the father never married, but she wanted her son to have the same last name. McKinney also went by the name Gunterman for a few years.
During her junior year in high school, McKinney was accepted to the Fashion Institute of Design and Marketing, but could not afford to attend the school right after graduation.
In order to earn money for college, McKinney decided to join the Army.
The idea was not so unheard of in her family. Both of McKinney's brothers are in the military. Matthew L. "Buddy" Heavrin is a senior at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., and Philip Heavrin is stationed at Camp Pendleton with the Marines.
Her sister Ruth attends Redlands High School.
"I am so proud that I raised patriots," Heavrin said. "(But) I am sorry she had to die this way."
On Oct. 24, 2005, Heavrin married Christopher Lee McKinney in Tacoma, Wash. Also a graduate of Redlands High School, McKinney was stationed with Heavrin in Fort Lewis.
Buddy Heavrin will escort his sister's remains to California from Dover, Del., where the autopsy is being conducted.
Services will take place at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Highland, where McKinney was a member.
Reports from the U.S. Department of Defense said that McKinney died due to a "non-hostile incident." The "incident," according to McKinney's mother Barbie Heavrin,