Halyn RIley: Cheerful girl, 5, loved to learn

Living in a house with four brothers couldn't stop young Halyn Riley from being all girl.

The buoyant 5-year-old from Crete loved the color pink, raiding the closet to play dress up, singing and dancing, and all of the Disney princesses equally, her father Hugh Riley said.

"She was always upbeat, no matter how ill she was," he said. "She always looked forward to getting better."

Halyn was diagnosed with leukemia on April 9, her father said. She died Monday.

"She died at home with me," he said. "I was there with her."

Hugh Riley, who works in the information technology department of Sun-Times Media, remembered the day the ultrasound showed him and his wife, Latrice, that their fourth child would be their first baby girl.

"We were happy," he said. "We were very happy."

Halyn was doted on by her brothers, but she wasn't afraid to show who was in charge.

"She bossed them around," her father said. "They did everything she said."

Hugh Riley said Halyn's battle with leukemia didn't stop her from starting kindergarten at Crete Elementary School in the south suburb.

"She loved to learn -- her letters, her numbers, how to add, how to read," he said.

She brought the same cheerful enthusiasm to the University of Chicago Comer Children's Hospital's sixth floor. "They did all that they could to make her comfortable, and me and my wife and my whole family appreciated that," her father said.

"She was a happy girl, she was always happy," he said. "She loved to give hugs."

In addition to her father and mother, Halyn is survived by brothers Delacey, 15; Darius, 12; Dante, 11, and Laurence, 4.

Visitation will be from 2 to 6 p.m. Thursday at McCullough Funeral Home in Ford Heights. The funeral will be at 2:30 p.m. Friday at Kingdom Hall Jehovah's Witness in University Park.