by Jessica Del Curto
Daily Lobo
It was UNM freshman Travis Yankee's first college Fall Break, and he was going home to Roswell to go hunting with his dad.
"Deer season starts Saturday," Larry Yankee said of his son. "He came down to look for deer and just hang out with me. He was my pal."
On Friday afternoon, Yankee, 18, died in a motorcycle accident near the old Roswell Airport.
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Yankee, who had just started at UNM in August, lived in the Student Residence Center. He was studying business and had started a job last week working in Recruitment Services - his job was to recruit students to come to UNM.
"Basically, that was his dream, to go to UNM," Larry Yankee said. "He never considered anyplace else."
At Yankee's funeral on Tuesday, his dad said hundreds of people packed the Catholic church.
Dorothy Hellums, office administrator for SCOR Orthopedics in Roswell, said the doctor's office shut down for a day so all 22 employees could go to Yankee's funeral. Yankee worked for the office during his senior year at Goddard High School and through the summer before he left for college.
"He touched our office," Hellums said. "All the way from the doctors down to the other students that worked there."
According to the Roswell Daily Record, Yankee's motorcycle hit a metal barrier as he was riding to meet a friend on the runway near the old airport. The article said he was wearing a helmet.
Calls to the Roswell Police Department were not returned Wednesday or Thursday.
Officer Jerry Dosher told the Roswell Daily Record that Yankee was meeting his friends to race his sport motorcycle.
But Larry Yankee said his son wasn't racing.
"I know he wasn't racing," he said. "Travis wasn't that way. He never even got a speeding ticket in his life. He had never been pulled over. He was a very responsible young man."
Michael Russell, an 18-year-old UNM student, was with Yankee when he died. He declined to comment on the incident, but said Yankee was the kind of guy who was good at cheering people up.
"He was always in a good mood," he said.
People who knew Yankee said they would miss his smile the most.
"He had one of the best smiles. He was never down about anything," said his friend Darr Smith, a UNM student who grew up with him in Roswell. "Whenever he would hit on girls, he was such a smooth talker."
Rudi Salazar, 18, was dating Yankee. She met him at the beginning of the semester when she moved into the SRC.
"He was the first person who liked me for me," she said. "He never tried to change anything about me. He was such an amazing person."
Salazar said she was waiting for Yankee's call all day Friday. Around 10 p.m. she received a message from one of his friends, who told her Yankee had died. After that, the messages to Salazar came flooding in.
Friends and family said Yankee loved his motorcycle, as well as hunting, fishing and the outdoors.
Yankee's dad said he will miss the relationship he had with his son.
"He was my son, and he was my friend," he said. "Right now it's just kind of hard to think."
He compared his feelings to the movie "Sleepless in Seattle," where Tom Hanks says, "Sometimes you have to remind yourself to breathe."
Salazar said she would tell Yankee's friends to remember what kind of person he was.
"Be strong, because that's what he wants," she said. "It's OK to cry when you think about him."
