CHAPEL HILL - To hear her friends tell it, Eve Carson's energy and effervescence were most evident in her text messages and e-mail messages -- which she routinely overloaded with exclamation points.

"Sometimes she would punctuate her messages with seven, eight or even ten exclamation points," Anna Lassiter, her roommate of two years, recounted Tuesday, "even before starting her actual message."

To so many at UNC-Chapel Hill, Eve Marie Carson was a walking exclamation point, a lightning bolt of promise. On Tuesday afternoon, more than 10,000 people -- friends she knew and friends she hadn't yet made -- filled the Dean E. Smith Center to remember her fondly. Earlier Tuesday, about 200 gathered at N.C. State University's brickyard to pay tribute to Carson, with some wearing light blue in her honor.

The 22-year-old Athens, Ga., native was shot dead in the early hours of March 5. The ghastly slaying received no mention at all during a 75-minute event almost entirely devoid of tears. Carson's parents and brother attended but did not speak. Dean of Students Melissa Exum read excerpts of a message from Carson's father, Bob, expressing his hopes for Eve's classmates and praise for a generation of intelligent, collaborative and generous students.

Each person who spoke Tuesday had an Eve story to tell, from the university trustee Carson tricked into allowing far more time than allotted for students lobbying against tuition increases, to the roommate who joked about her penchant for eating all but the last bite of ice cream in the freezer.

"She was a bright spot in your day," recalled Seth Dearmin, UNC-CH's student body president two years before Carson, "a thoughtful conversation, a warm hug."

Students adorned in Carolina Blue, many wearing ribbons or stickers reading, simply, "Eve," watched a digital photo collage playing on the big screens overhead. It suggested a young woman soaking up the quintessential college life. Eve at Kenan Stadium. Eve in her apartment. Eve at a formal. Eve hanging out with Oompa Loompas on Halloween. In most of the photos, she has an arm around someone. And she is always smiling.

A life lived 'full-throttle'

In Chapel Hill, Carson lived, appropriately, on Friendly Lane. Her death caused a collective buckling throughout Chapel Hill, where people struggled on two fronts: The killing itself was alarming enough; that the victim was Carson -- so well-known and popular -- was tougher still.

"You can't walk into this great big room and not see Eve Carson behind me, in the student section, with that terrific smile," UNC President Erskine Bowles remembered.

Trustee Roger Perry spoke of a meeting on tuition last year. He gave students 20 minutes to plead their case. Carson, through a combination of planning, cunning and charm, kept her fellow students talking for more than an hour.

Peggy Jablonski, UNC-CH's vice chancellor for student affairs, learned to schedule her meetings with Carson for late in the day. Carson simply had too much to say in a one-hour time slot.

"Eve lived life full-throttle," Jablonski said.

Lynn Saffie of Chapel Hill didn't know Carson at all. But like so many others Tuesday, she came to say goodbye to a young woman who somehow seemed like her friend. "It was her smile, her charisma, her motivation to meet everyone and help everyone," Saffie said.

Margaret Batts met Carson last summer as a new UNC-CH freshman. Carson was a freshman camp counselor but never pulled rank.

"I thought she was awesome," the Kenansville native said. "She spoke to me every time she saw me, which was unusual because she was student body president and I was just a freshman."

(Staff photographer Shawn Rocco contributed to this report.)

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