From the Herald Express.......
STING VISIT TO DYING FRIEND BY COLLEEN SMITH 11:00 - 19 May 2003 Pop superstar Sting has been to Torquay's Rowcroft Hospice to visit one of his oldest friends and colleagues, Kim Turner who died last week of cancer at the age of 46. Torquay boy Kim - brother of Wishbone Ash guitarist Martin Turner - managed The Police and Sting for 20 years, before giving up the music business to return to his Torquay roots in recent years. Tragically Kim died only two days before the first anniversary of his marriage to his girlfriend of many years, New Yorker Joann. Kim's cancer was diagnosed within two months of the wedding and Joann has spent the last 10 months nursing him. Sting - Britain's second richest pop star - had been visiting Kim during treatment at the London Clinic. A close family friend said: "The last time Sting visited Kim in hospital in London he said, 'See you again' as he went to leave, and Kim looked back and said 'I will see you again won't I?' and Sting said 'Yes, of course you will'. "I think it's a mark of the man and of his friendship with Kim that he made sure he honoured that promise. He was due to fly out to Los Angeles to make a visit but instead he came to Torquay to visit Kim in Rowcroft before he left the country." Kim, who has two teenage daughters with his first wife Kathy, closely-guarded his privacy and has been known for keeping tight-lipped about his rock 'n roll years on the road with The Police and Sting. When The Police played an early gig in Torquay in the late 1970s they all slept the night on the floor at Kim's parents' Torquay house afterwards. Friends describe how he treated everybody with the same friendly open manner - whether they were begging on the streets or the world's richest men. Once he famously invited a New York beggar to dinner with him at one of the city's most expensive restaurants and then put him up for the night afterwards Kim's wife Joann said: "Kim had an amazing life. He was always just open to so many things. He had a way of making people feel as if they had known him forever, even within a few hours of meeting them. "The cards and letters I have had from people who met him, some who just knew him for a short time back in The Police days, have been incredible." And his eldest brother Martin recalled: "Kim just had a way of getting things done. "Once a film crew was trying to record a Sting concert at Madison Square Gardens but they couldn't film because of the roar of the jets into JFK airport. So he phoned the Mayor of New York and got them to stop all air traffic for an hour and a half - I think it cost him something like a quarter of a million dollar donation to the Mayor's favourite charity, but I don't think anybody except Kim could have pulled it off." Former Torquay Boys' Grammar schoolboy Martin said: "What's even more amazing is that Kim was practically a drop-out from school. Today he would be diagnosed dyslexic, but in those days he was just a kid who hated school and who couldn't read or write very well. He was supposed to go to Audley Park - but mostly he didn't bother." Martin said that Kim opted out of the music business about five years ago after 20 years of living out of a suitcase. "He had other business interests. Everything he did was a success because he just loved people. He had two cattle farms in South Devon because he loved animals. Financially they probably weren't a success but I don't think that mattered," said Martin Kim was the youngest of three brothers. His music career began as a drummer at the family home in Dart Avenue, Shiphay. After playing in a number of bands he was dragged in to look after The Police by Miles Copeland - who managed Wishbone Ash. "I think Miles was a bit reluctant to get involved with The Police at first but he felt he had to because of Stewart. So it was Kim, not Miles, who really helped get them started - road managing, doing sound, all that stuff. It was only when they started to get successful that Miles came on board." One of Kim's oldest friends and business associates was Terry Hannaford, a co-director of Skip-It and Total Hire at Barton. He said: "Although I knew that Kim was dying, the news has really hit me hard. We were friends far longer than we were business partners. I knew his late father Ed before I knew Kim." Kim leaves two daughters Stevie, 17, and Jaimie, 15, who will be travelling from live New York with their mother for the funeral later this week. He also leaves his mother, Eileen and an older brother, Glenn. Hope everyone is having a great week, -Anne