Get to know the beautiful, talented, amazing women who stand behind and beside KPRC Channel 2 journalist and Katyite, Keith Garvin.
KATY MAGAZINE | November 2017
By Lacey Kupfer Wulf
Select Photography by Sara Isola
To all of Houston, Keith Garvin is an award-winning journalist at KPRC Channel 2—a local celebrity. But to his family and friends, he is a husband, father, neighbor in Cinco Ranch, congregant at the Second Baptist Church 1463, and community member in Katy. Now, let’s get to know the all of the Garvin family: Keith and his wife Lisa and their daughters Kaleé, Rileigh, Kendyll, and Reagan.
Balancing Work and Home Life
In his work, Keith has covered countless fascinating stories, including Houston’s own America’s Got Talent finalists Danielle Bradberry and Sundance Head and the Astros journey to the World Series. On top of reporting on events and telling background stories of talented contestants and players, for some stories, he says, “You get an opportunity sometimes to rub elbows with and meet some of the Hollywood stars which usually is a pretty cool experience.”
Despite this occasional glamorous aspect of his job, Keith and the rest of the Garvins are down-to-earth Katyites. The Garvins love to shop and eat in La Centerra. Lisa says, “The girls and I split time between Orange Theory and Lifetime Fitness.” She also loves to craft and has volunteered for the Mum Shoppe at Seven Lakes High School for the last four years.
Although people occasionally recognize him from TV, Keith says, “We’ve been blessed with some really amazing neighbors since we moved here five years ago, and so I think they appreciate the fact that I have a TV news job, but they know I’m a pretty normal guy, and they treat me that way. People have always been very kind.”
The Family Dynamic
Although each of Keith and Lisa’s daughters has her own talents and personality, Keith says, “I have to really credit Lisa with the amazing young women they are becoming because they’re all basically four smaller versions of her.” Lisa graduated as a business major with an emphasis in business economics from the University of Nevada Reno, where she and Keith met. For three years, she worked at Shell as an analyst before becoming more invested in the Katy community by working at a Katy ISD school. And it appears that each of their daughters has inherited both parents’ ambition, work ethic, and desire to help others.
Four Beautiful, Unique Daughters
As unique as each is, the Garvin’s daughters seem drawn back to their family and friends in Katy as they have grown up. After graduating from Baylor in 2016, Kaleé lives in Katy and enjoys working for a public relations firm in Houston. In August 2017, Rileigh graduated Magna Cum Laude in three years from Texas Tech and is now living her dream as a nurse in the ICU unit at a local Houston Methodist Hospital.
A freshman at the University of Arkansas, Kendyll plays in the marching band and wants to become a nurse as well. As an eighth-grade cheerleader, Reagan aspires to become a marine biologist and would like to study at Hawaii Pacific University, but her parents are trying to persuade her to attend a closer university!
Keith and his wife Lisa love finding ways to be silly and have fun during their crazy schedules.
"Night Cap at Wal Mart for the win! #GUnit" - from Lisa's Facebook
Hurricane Harvey
Among the most difficult stories to cover, Hurricane Harvey affected Keith emotionally as much as many other Houstonians. “I was shocked and overwhelmed like everyone else by the amount of rain that just wouldn’t stop falling for those first few days,” Keith says. “But we had to do our jobs and cover the story so people not only would see what was happening in their neighborhoods, but so they would have the information they needed to keep themselves and their families safe.” Because of his job as a TV journalist, Keith served the entire Houston area by helping everyone stay informed of storm developments and Harvey relief efforts.
Because the Garvins’ neighborhood was spared by Hurricane Harvey, Keith says, “We felt extremely blessed by that, but we also felt the need to help as many people as possible who did suffer damage and were out of their homes. Our church did a magnificent job in being a major source of relief in the community and our family was grateful to be a small part of that effort.” The Garvins as a family mucked out six houses and donated their time and money for relief.
Whether in daily life in Katy or in informing the public of crucial news, Katy wouldn’t be the same without Keith and the entire Garvin family.