Michael Jared Rollins-Jones was a fighter at birth, surviving his umbilical cord’s accidental severing in the birth canal.
For a decade and a half, he battled sickle cell anemia, refusing to let the disease keep him from pursuing his dreams and enjoying his life.
The budding actor and singer sang with Stevie Wonder at Lincoln Center in New York and snagged lead roles in school plays. He fished and frolicked with his dogs, studied bugs and loved cooking, gardening, swimming and traveling.
As a freshman in the Academy for Performing and Visual Arts at Heritage High School in Conyers, classmates respected his determination not to let the show go on without him.
Jared, as he was known, would perform through the pain of a sickle cell crisis and bounce back from blood transfusions and extended hospital stays as if nothing happened. His performances wowed the crowds.
That grit to go on made his sudden death all the more shocking for the school’s performing arts community.
“We loved Jared. He was sunshine. He was joyful. He was very talented,” said Michelle Thorne, director of theater at Heritage High. “You knew he had to be in pain, but he didn’t show it. He was stalwart because he didn’t want to be treated differently. He just wanted to be treated like a normal kid like everyone else.”
Jared, of Conyers, died April 20 of complications from sickle cell disease, as he was fighting to recover from an illness to perform in the school’s spring musical “Chicago.” He was 15.
The cast and crew paid tribute to him during an April 24 performance at the school and at an April 25 memorial service in Lithonia. Students wore burgundy ribbons inscribed with “Jared Strong” in honor of sickle cell awareness and his resolve.
On April 30, a joint memorial service was held in Bronx, N.Y., for Jared and his great-grandmother Kate Rollins, who both died the same night.
Born in Covington on March 7, 2000, Jared learned early how to rise above his health with a positive attitude, love of performing and a lot of pluck.
His mother, Cristal Rollins of Conyers, also has sickle cell disease, which causes the body to make crescent-shaped, stiff and sticky red blood cells that block blood flow and can cause excruciating pain and organ damage.
“I used to always tell him that sickle cell was something I had, but it didn’t have me,” Rollins said. “That’s how we faced life.”
At 7 months old, Jared won a local Halloween costume contest as the “Humming Pirate.” As a toddler, he was belting out tunes to his two dogs on the front-porch swing at his parents’ Covington home.
In 2004 his family moved to New York, where Jared began acting at age 6 at a theater camp in Tarrytown. He participated in his first play in kindergarten and serenaded the lunch ladies during recess with his rendition of Sam Cooke’s “Cupid.”
While in New York, Jared also participated in Yorktown Stage’s summer theater program. For six summers he attended Paul Newman’s Hole in the Wall Gang camp in Connecticut for children with serious illnesses.
In 2010, after a three-week hospital stay for a sickle cell crisis, Jared was on stage at Lincoln Center singing with Wonder and Bette Midler. The following year he was performing around New York with Antonia Arts.
“I work with a lot of talented kids. He was exceptional,” said Scarlett Antonia, the group’s artistic director. “He had a charismatic energy and put passion and commitment into every performance.”
In 2012 Jared returned to Georgia and landed the lead role in “Honk” at his Rockdale County middle school. Last fall he was accepted into the new performing and visual arts academy at Heritage High.
As a freshman he landed the role of Pugsley in the school’s “The Addams Family” musical and played Daniel’s son in “Once on This Island.” Last month’s “Chicago” was to be his third school performance of the year.
“Theater is more than what happens on stage. It’s the community you create,” Thorne said. “Jared brought out the best in our group. We are better because of him.”
When he was not on stage, Jared was known for helping others and for his love of animals and nature. “Every child deserves happiness,” his mother said. “He had a wonderful life. He also suffered, but he never let it stop him. I was so blessed to have him for 15 years.”
In addition to his mother, Jared is survived by his grandparents Dennis and Edith Rollins of Cortlandt, N.Y.
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