The girl from Oakland, California made a difference.

Every space, arena and conversation Cecilia Austin entered into, she would scan to see who to speak to before alerting the world of her presence. She would flash an imperfect smile but behind it would be something no dentist could align properly, something no one could judge but instead embrace: heart.

She took on roles with various organizations, gave life to a creative house where other aspiring journalists could flourish and impacted everyone who saw her or even met her within passing. Every morning, she’d quietly gather her life and ask the day, then the month and later the year to be gentle. To allow her to be graceful despite uncertain moments, proud and engaging to whatever dream she dared write down and later check off.

Cecilia Marie Austin, a Jill Of All Trades who took dry wit from her father, beauty and style from her mother and molded into becoming a light for all around her, passed away suddenly on July 6. She was 35.

Almost immediately, the ripple effect of her passing, shocking as it was, broke everyone around her.

During her decade-plus-long career as a journalist in Houston, she cut her teeth writing for The Daily Cougar, the University of Houston’s student paper. She would elevate her career, earning bylines regarding the entertainment industry and Houston Style Magazine before becoming a branded content writer for Blavity. In 2014, she summarized her career with a simple statement, “You go into journalism for the love of the craft. The money comes later.”

The love of the craft was formulated in Oakland. A land and soil rooted in revolution and outspokenness, the area would help shape Austin for the first 18 years of her life. She was born in Omaha, Nebraska on May 15, 1986, and would later move to Oakland as a child. She would gravitate towards organizations with a dream of one day working for CNN. In high school, she ran hurdles for the track team, created cheers and dancers while on the cheer squad and kept her community of sisters laughing and comfortable. Austin always found a tribe wherever she went, whether by blood, by like-minded ideas or a shared appreciation for a good line dance or a joke.

“I’m the old soul that learned to play Spades just so I could be my mom’s partner at the kickbacks,” Austin warmly told Voyage Houston in 2019. “I grew up on the West Coast during the 90s, which could be a book in itself, and it absolutely shaped my childhood.”

She added, “I’ve always loved books, music and films. In that order. I learned to read young, I’ve always been terrible at math, but God – I loved to read. I thank my mother for that, as she often forced me to read the dictionary or “go write sentences” when I’d been bad.”

Her time in Houston, once which began as her being completely new to a foreign space, led her to find a new community on campus and in the entertainment scene. She proudly boasted bartending helped pay for her journalism degree, gave her a chance meeting with Pimp C before the rapper passed and rewarded her with the mentality to make a door when no door seemed unlocked for her.

Like anything she did, bartending and journalism would lead to other things to stretch her talents. She would launch her own radio show in 2012, affectionately called Yellow Bandit Radio on 90.3 GMT. She would become a co-host for various community events to give back, whether they be comedy shows or concerts. In 2017, she helped host a Hurricane Harvey benefit concert less than a month after the storm wrecked her adopted home.

As much as she was dedicated to her work and constant elevation, Austin was a fierce defender of her people and at the same time, beloved beyond measure. At her wedding in October 2017, her bridesmaids all wore yellow, her favorite color and walked down the aisle to Michael Jackson’s ‘The Lady In My Life.’ She would break into a song whenever it fit her and quote anything from Star Trek to Marvel films and more. As often as she dealt with the pitfalls of life, the strains of doubt and questions of imposter syndrome, she constantly found herself in greater standing.

In her final days, she was reflective and grateful. Months after losing her mother to Alzheimer’s and six years after losing her father, she found herself at 35, beating her chest with confidence on what the future held. She’d begun a job at Microsoft and celebrated the history of Black culture through Questlove’s Summer of Soul film for Shadow And Act. She no longer wanted one particular Black story to be hidden, just as hers seemingly continued to add chapters and anecdotes regarding crawfish, snow crab and appreciation of being a Black girl from Oakland.

“I’m proud of myself,” she wrote the afternoon of July 5. “And I know my parents are too.”

Austin may be absent in the flesh, but her mission was fulfilled. As a wife, a stepmother and sibling to so many. Of connecting strangers to a purpose of family, one she strived to have when she left Oakland as a teen and cultivated in Houston as an adult.

The girl from Oakland made a difference - and painted the town yellow every step of the way.