Frankfort's Maggie DeVries, 'Light Of Family's Lives', Dies at 6

FRANKFORT, IL — Frankfort resident, Maggie DeVries, 6, died on Thursday, her family shared with Patch. Maggie was diagnosed in January with diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, which is a rare and inoperable brain tumor.

Maggie's parents have been sharing her life and diagnosis on a Facebook group, "Love For Maggie." The community rallied behind the young family, raising funds via a GoFundMe, decorating the family's home for Christmas, and creating an art exhibit full of snowflakes in honor of her.

The family shared Maggie's obituary below with Patch:

Margaret Elaine DeVries (“Maggie”) passed away peacefully at home on Dec. 15, 2022. She was born on May 2, 2016 to her very nervous parents, Erin and Peter DeVries. They tried so hard to give Maggie the best life, filled with so many good days. She was the light of her family’s lives and endlessly wrapped in so much love by those around her. Maggie loved to dance, do gymnastics, and was a member of the Frankfort Falcons cheerleading team. She was a proud Girl Scout in her second year as a Daisy. If you’ve met her, she’s probably talked to you about poop. Yes, poop. She is the bravest and best girl we know.

Maggie is survived by her parents Peter and Erin, her brother Patrick, her beloved chihuahua Scarlet, her grandparents Richard and Bridget Lorenz and Frank and Anne DeVries, her great grandfather James Lorenz (Elaine) and her great grandmother Laura Pepper Doyle (James), her aunts and uncles Elizabeth Tiffy (John), Matthew DeVries (Lynn), Robert DeVries, and Steven DeVries, her cousins Blythe and Jett Tiffy, and Natalie and Melanie DeVries, her great aunts and great uncles, her friends who are like family the Sapp, Sultanian, and Inzcauskis families, Karen and Mike Weringa, Julianna and Alessandra Scariano, Jack Louden, and countless others at Grand Prairie Elementary School and Stage Door Dance Academy. She is preceded in death by her great grandparents Elaine Lorenz, James Doyle, Virginia Doyle, Casimir and Jeannette Kedzior, and Gerrit and Anna DeVries.

A visitation for Maggie will be held at Kurtz Memorial Chapel, 65 Old Frankfort Way, Frankfort, on Monday, Dec. 19, from 3 to 8 p.m. Funeral services will be held privately.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made in Maggie’s honor to Project Fire Buddies, Chad Tough Defeat DIPG Foundation, or Give Kids the World