Arlin Vance Stevens III

Arlin Stevens III died at his home in Aurora, Colorado on February 21, 2018. He was 28 and had been fighting an opiate addiction for some time.

He was known to most everybody as Trey. He had moved to the Denver area with his parents Arlin and Rebecca Stevens when he was two years old, along with his baby sister Avery and his little stuffed buddy Winnie the Pooh. Colorado would remain his home until the day he died.

Trey was bright, charming, handsome, creative and funny. He was very spiritual and an unapologetic dreamer. Trey had gorgeous red hair, and red was most definitely his favorite color. At his passing, different friends often used the same words to describe him: “He had a big heart.”

There is no doubt of that, and that he did things his way. To his friends, he was loyal and protective to a fault, and always the defender of the little guy. Trey certainly looked after his little sister Avery growing up. He was fond of the old saying: “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, but the fight in the dog.”

Bruce Lee was one of his favorites. Like his martial arts idol, Trey could be quite philosophical and was physically very gifted. Trey would say he preferred to never start a fight, but was always prepared for one, and usually quick to finish one. He could do thousands of crunches (modified sit-ups) at a time and had the abdominal muscles to show for it.

His favorite sport was basketball. He relished hooking up for an inner city pick-up game. Picture a confident, lanky young man with a light complexion, red hair, baggy shorts and a backward baseball cap casually sauntering up to a court looking for a game in “the hood.” He would be greeted with sideways glances, doubtful expressions and pretty much the attitude that he didn’t belong there. Once he took the court, however, the comments soon changed to things like: “White boy’s got skills, white boy’s got game.” With the earned respect came nicknames like “Water.” By that they meant his shot was smooth and flowing like water. He was capable of knocking down shot after long range shot. Skateboarding was another passion.

Trey loved Rap and hip hop. There is a video of him at age three perfectly tracking Michael Jackson and a ghoulish dance scene from the music video “Thriller” playing on the TV behind him. Skipping forward a few years he became a big fan of Tupac Shakur, Biggie Smalls, Jay-Z, and Eminem among others. Trey was always writing clever rhymes and spitting verses. He had a way with words and could ad lib on the fly with the best of them.

Trey and his close buddy Chase formed the Rap music group Urban Farm Market—UFM. He said they needed to change the name because it kept coming up on line as Underwear for Men. Among other things, UFM played at local nightclub Cervantes winning “battle of the bands” contests. Trey was made for the stage.