Jayda aka Jeremy Van

Jayda Lyn Van aka (Jeremy A. Van)

Was born November 7, 1988 to Jerome and Ruby Van. Jay was the third child of five children. On July 28, 2023, Jay departed this life on earth. He attended Forest Park and Hufford IE elementary schools. After graduating from Joliet Central in 2007, Jay went to Illinois Institute of Technology to pursue education in Architectural Engineering until making the decision in 2010 to enlist in the Armed Forces serving as a A1C Loadmaster. Jay re-enlisted for serval more years with the Air Force National Guard in Peoria IL. Within that time, he traveled the world and met people of many different backgrounds. Jay had the opportunity to visit many different countries Afghanistan, Cuba,Kuwait, Turks &Ciaos, England and France just to name a few. In 2016 Jay moved to Chicago, it was then where he transitioned and began living her life as Jayda. She continued to do great and amazing things. She was a Chicago based activist and organizer. Jayda is a founding member of the Pride Without Prejudice Collective. She was a former recording Secretary of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression. In 2017 she began working as a Junior DevOps Engineer for Jellyvision. From there she went to Avant as a Site Reliability Engineer. With so much talent, intelligence and a brilliant mind, Jayda went to the Caribbean Islands and set up computer systems and software for a resort and on July16, 2019, Jayda sent her very own transgender flag lunar chip to the moon. From there she continued using her gift to do Engineer work with serval different companies.

Jayda is preceded in death by her brother, lil Jerome Van; maternal grandparents, George and Martha Harris, and paternal grandmother, Flosie Van.

Jayda leaves to cherish her memories her father, Jerome Van; mother, Ruby Van; brothers, Derek (Tracey) Van of Chicago IL, Larry Killensworth of Joliet, IL; sisters, Lisa Van of Chicago IL, La’mariana Killensworth and Tiffany Van, both of Joliet, IL and a host of aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins, and close friends.

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