“Real, selfless.”
“The glue that held us all together.”
“Extraordinary.”
The IU junior from Libertyville, Ill., died unexpectedly Thursday night, only five days after celebrating her 20th birthday. Kelly will be missed by her parents Craig and Jodi, her sister Jenna, 26, and her brother Mark, 24.
Jenna had just gotten engaged, and Hackendahl would have been her maid of honor, said junior Alex McKinley, one of Hackendahl’s roommates in the Zeta Tau Alpha sorority.
Hackendahl was a bubbly, fun-loving girl who could make friends with anyone, McKinley said, sitting on the swing in front of the Zeta house — one of Hackendahl’s favorite spots.
“That’s how Kelly will always be to me now, young at heart,” McKinley said.
The education major dreamed of becoming a high school government teacher , said Hackendahl’s close friend, senior Darcy Patterson. She loved reading the news, and her roommates would constantly wake up to Hackendahl’s updates on current events or conspiracy theories about the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.
She planned to someday get a tattoo of the word “inspire,” Patterson said.
“She wanted to inspire people,” Patterson said. “That’s why she wanted to be a teacher.”
Hackendahl was a fearless leader and a member of her Libertyville High School dance team for four years, said Grace Ahern , her friend from high school and a junior at the University of Dayton.
Ahern remembered one day in gym class when the dance team members were asked to perform a solo in front of the class. Hackendahl was the only one who stepped up, performing an impromptu dance to “Respect” by Aretha Franklin , lip-synching all of the words.
“You couldn’t be mad around her,” Ahern said. “She had the weirdest, quirkiest sense of humor.”
She loved driving to Griffy Lake with her friends in her Honda Element, listening to her countless playlists and favorite band, OAR, McKinley said.
The avid performer was well known in the Zeta house for her perfect imitation of a Mickey Mouse voice and her bold sense of style, Patterson said.
One day during finals week last year, she decided to curl her blond hair in perfect ringlets for no reason, Patterson said.
She owned a particular blue shirt that she believed could look good on anyone, and it was constantly passed around the Zeta house like a “sisterhood of the traveling shirt,” McKinley said. Her sorority sisters plan on making blue t-shirts with an image of Mickey Mouse in memory of Hackendahl.
Hackendahl was the Sisterhood Chair for Zeta , and she would always reach out to her friends who she knew were going through hard times. One time she invited McKinley to do some crafting with her, Hackendahl’s favorite hobby, in the hope that McKinley would open up about her struggles. The aspiring teacher knew that when you ask others to make a craft, they tend to start talking, McKinley said.
“That’s why this is so shocking because everybody knows her,” Patterson said of Hackendahl’s death. “She just makes you feel happy.”
Hackendahl’s funeral will take place today at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Libertyville, and the family is requesting donations for Zeta’s philanthropy, Big Man on Campus, benefiting breast cancer research.
Instead of wearing black to the funeral, her sorority sisters plan to wear regular clothes, just like they would while spending time with Hackendahl.
“I want it to be like we’re just hanging out for one last (time),” McKinley said.
McKinley said she is going to try to do something every day to remember her best friend.
“We’re going to go through one of the hardest things we’ve ever had to go through,” McKinley said about the Zeta community. “But I know it’s going to make us so much stronger.”
