Skyler Wayne Kinnaird Wheeler, age 34 of Louisville, passed away Monday, June 7, 2018. He attended Eastern High School and loved all sports, especially baseball and fishing with his sister. Skyler was preceded in death by his sister, Katherine Sylvia Kelley Koch and maternal grandfather, Captain Virgil “Kinnaird” Kelley, Jr., USAF; paternal grandfather, Samuel Wheeler, and his maternal great-grandparents, Sylvia and Virgil K. Kelley, Sr. His mother’s lifelong friend, Donna Breeze, who Skyler called Aunt Donna wrote: “People need to see the face of Skyler. Because when they hear the story without the picture, they can’t put together what humaneness that is Skyler…Skyler had a disease that can cripple so badly a life that had so much potential. Skyler that was so loved by his Mother, Stepfather and his sister Heather and Jeremy. Skyler whom his beloved ones tried to protect, cried out for help, help that wasn’t there. People can look at these pictures of this bright, and I mean so incredibly intelligent, young, funny,  charismatic, handsome man and see so much future in him….that such a cruel disease took him away. Not even this disease was able to take it all. Those moments that are uniquely Skyler, couldn’t be stolen. Everyone  that loved him, tried to fight for him because he couldn’t do it for himself. They saw Skyler, Skyler that had a disease but also this child in these pictures. A system that is so beyond broken that can take this potential in this child and not look at it and see what can be done to fix this damaged and compromised, inoperative system. I will always hold close those memories and choose to remember that he touched our lives. But not forget when I see someone on the street,  what struggles they are going through because we choose to “look the other way” Rest In well deserved peace Skyler ❤️”

Skyler is survived by his loving family, his sister, Heather Durham (Jeremy); mother, Tracey Kelley (Shaun Feeney); step-brothers Jacob and Heath Feeney; Robert and Frederick Koch; maternal grandmother, Opal Ruth Kelley Ziemniak; step-grandfather, Edward Ziemniak; paternal grandmother, Edna Wheeler; uncles, Chris Kelley and Corey Ziemniak; and a host of family and friends.  A gathering to celebrate Skyler’s life will be 9:30 am – 12:30 pm on Thursday, June 14, 2018 at Newcomer ‘s, East Louisville Chapel, Middletown.

There will be a graveside service at 3pm Thursday, June 14, 2018, with Rev. Paul Floyd officiating at Bellevue Cemetery, Danville, Kentucky.
Memorials may be made to the Treatment Advocacy Center, 200 North Glebe Road, Suite 801, Arlington, VA 22203. The online guestbook is available at www.stithcares.com