As an 8-year-old model and budding actress, Natina Reed didn’t know she was already living her dreams. She had advertising work lined up, she’d done campaigns for Macy’s and Bloomingdales, and she’d already done a hot dog commercial the year before.

“They told me I should take her out of school, she had so much work lined up,” said her mother, Tamara Goodridge, of Covington. “But when I asked her if that was what she wanted to do at the time, she said no, that she wanted to be a veterinarian.”

But by the time Reed hit her teens, she was well aware. She was a songwriter and was a member of the R&B girl-group Blaque, which is an acronym for Believing in Life and Achieving a Quest for Unity in Everything. And to top it off, she and fellow group members followed up their platinum hits with parts in a couple of movies and a television series.

“She loved acting,” Goodridge said. “The group was extended the opportunity to work on the soundtrack for the Marvin Gaye movie that is to be filmed, and she was looking at a role in the movie.”

Reed died suddenly Friday when she was struck by a vehicle while walking along on Lawrenceville Highway near Hamilton Road, just north of Lilburn, according to police. She was 32.

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