Parkland student Luke Hoyer, 15, loved kid stuff — and LeBron James
Luke Hoyer wasn’t sure what he wanted to do with his life yet.
He was 15. A high school freshman at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
He knew that he loved basketball, especially former Miami Heat star LeBron James, and McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets. And, yes, good ol’ gooey mac and cheese, video games and his dogs.
Mostly kid stuff, his aunt Joan Cox suggested in an interview with People magazine.
“He didn’t know what he wanted to do yet. He was just a freshman and was looking forward to high school,” Cox, who lives in South Carolina, told the publication.
This would be reflected in one of the last conversations Cox had with her sister Gena Hoyer — Luke’s mom — about Luke’s potential future. What they both knew for sure was that Luke was “a happy-go-lucky kid.” The family endearingly called him “Lukey-Bear.”
On Valentine’s Day, Luke was one of 17 students and teachers who was shot and killed while at his school by a former student who returned with an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle.
“He was 15 years of age,” his cousin Grant Cox wrote on Facebook. “He had a whole life ahead of him and now I live through him.”
In the family’s obituary for their boy, they wrote: “Luke didn’t need to say much; just having him around made the room feel warm and welcoming.”
Luke’s survivors include his parents Thomas and Gena Stroud Hoyer, siblings Abby and Jake Hoyer, grandparents Janice and Eddy Stroud and Richard and Ann Hoyer.
Services include a visitation at 2:30-5:30 p.m. Sunday at Church by the Glades, 400 Lakeview Dr., Coral Springs. Funeral services will be at 11 a.m. Monday, also at Church by the Glades. Donations may be made in Luke’s memory to Voices for Children of Broward County.
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This story was originally published February 18, 2018 at 9:05 AM with the headline "Parkland student Luke Hoyer, 15, loved kid stuff — and LeBron James."