A Madison Heights teenager whose illness and love of Taylor Swift sparked a social media campaign that helped her meet the famous singer died Wednesday , just days away from her high school graduation.
Kayla Kincannon, 18, battled brain cancer for more than two years but didn’t let it dampen her positive spirit, friends said.
“She was an inspiration to many and an example of the need to fight through adversity and (not) let obstacles stand in your way,” said Greg Fuller, principal of Lamphere High School.
Kayla loved poetry, art and music. She was overjoyed in January 2013 to have an intimate lunch at a Nashville restaurant with Swift, whose album title “Fearless” became Kayla’s personal motto.
By that time, Kayla already had received two devastating blows. The first came on her 16th birthday, when she was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Doctors removed part of it and put her on chemo and radiation.
Then, few days before her 17th birthday in December 2012, doctors found a second spot on her brain.
Kayla’s friends jumped into action. They sent out tweets containing "#OperationGetKaylaToMeetTaylorSwift" in the hopes that the singer would notice. The phrase became a top trending topic on Twitter. One teen started a Facebook page.
The campaign caught Swift's attention. The singer's manager flew Kayla's mother and brother to Tennessee to coincide with a trip that Kayla and her dad already were planning to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis.
"She had a way of making you feel like you were talking to one of your best friends," Kayla said afterward.
At school, Kayla’s classmates rallied around her and her family. Some of the boys took her younger brother under their wing. Kayla was named homecoming queen.
“Even when she was going through treatments and her legs were giving out on her and she was physically unable to get around very well, she was OK with getting a scooter and going to school every morning,” family friend Vicki VanSickle said.
After Kayla got too sick late last fall to attend school, a teacher visited her at home.
When word spread Tuesday night that Kayla wasn’t doing well, dozens of people gathered outside her home to pray.
On Wednesday, Fuller called the entire senior class to the school library to tell them Kayla died earlier that morning. The next day, students released purple and gray balloons in her memory.
Fuller said Kayla really wanted to make her June 7 graduation ceremony. The school made her diploma a few weeks ago and will present it to her family.
Kayla is survived by her parents, Brad and Naomi Kincannon; brother Joshua Kincannon; grandparents a great-grandmother, and aunts, uncles and cousins.
Visitation is scheduled for 2-8 p.m. today at A. J. Desmond & Sons Funeral Home, 2600 Crooks Road, Troy. A funeral will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday at Woodlawn Church, 3620 Rochester Road, Royal Oak.
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