Legion holds fundraiser for Quillen family

Hundreds of people attended a fundraiser for the family of Kailyn Terry Quillen held Sunday, Oct. 6 at the Waseca American Legion. Kailyn Quillen, or “Ky” for short, was 21 years old when he died of cancer on August 21. Members of St. Paul Lutheran Church put on the fundraiser, serving pancakes, scrambled eggs, sausage, coffee and juice.

Ky’s mother, Natalie K. Quillen, and father, Charles J. Johnson, greeted those in attendance. “Ky was a big boy,” his mother said. “At 6 foot 2 inches tall he was hard to miss. At one point he had gotten up to 400 pounds but at the end he was closer to 200.” In 2017 he started to have seizures and had to see the doctor. That’s when they found the tumors. Radiation treatment produced favorable results in the beginning but in the end were unsuccessful. In his life, Ky had only three jobs, one for 1.5 years at Pizza Ranch; one as a lifeguard at a Holiday Inn waterpark lifeguard in Clinton Falls, and one as a dishwasher at the Starfire Event Center. Although originally born in Meza, Arizona, he attended school in Waseca. Extremely active in St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Ky took part in youth mission trips to help the poor. He sang in the church choir and taught Sunday school. His family says he was a swimmer, he enjoyed time around a campfire, appreciated spending time with family, and had many friends. A full-time resident of Waseca, Ky rented a house for the last year of his life and his mother was able to move in with him to help as he got worse. His journey through cancer also brought him in touch with the love of his life, Demi Lovato through the Make-a-Wish Foundation.

He has ten siblings, Koltyn Quillen, 17, Nalyce Quillen, 13, TaShaun Johnson, Charlene Johnson, Khadija Johnson, 18, NaTaya Johnson, Charles Johnson, Mykiah Johnson, 15, Charlyze Johnson, 11, and Cyrus Johnson, 11.

His mother remembered he performed at a Waseca High School talent show in February of 2019, “He sang Solo by Clean Bandit and Demi Lovato and he was so proud and I was so proud.” Lovato mentioned Ky in a commercial for the Make-a-Wish Foundation once and he also got to meet with her via Zoom one day for an hour; He posted news of the event online. In fact, family members say, almost every post Ky put online is of him singing a Demi Lovato song or saying how good a performer she is.

His mother says the family is following Ky’s directive that as much of himself be donated as possible. This included retina tissue and his brain, bone marrow and skin to cancer research. Portions of each of his organs were also donated in hope that they will help lead to earlier detection in the future.