Kylee Jean Collins

We are so thankful you are here to celebrate the life of our beautiful and amazing daughter, Kylee Jean Collins. She was born on Friday, July 13th, 2007 in Sioux Falls, SD. A happy baby from the start, she was always full of smiles and giggles. She was a fast learner and loved to be involved in anything and everything she could. There was soccer, dance, cheer, t-ball, gymnastics, art camps, zoo camps, church camps, and so much more in the early years. As she got older, it was clear Kylee was a natural athlete. Starting in second grade she joined her first basketball team and became hooked. A very shy child by nature, basketball, track, and cross country became her way to put herself out into the world. Kylee played on numerous basketball teams during her time, starting with Network, and then Pentagon Schoolers, before being recruited to play for All Iowa Attack in Ames, Iowa by a coach that had seen her playing in a tournament out of state. After two years of traveling with Attack, she suffered a severe double concussion, totaling at least five known concussions. Along with other injuries, and a series of difficult family discussions, a hard decision was made that she would leave basketball. She had been a starter and one of the lead players on every team she played with, often playing up a grade level, and worked with her teammates to win several championships during her time. She worked through injuries and illnesses because she never gave up and never wanted to let her team or coaches down. Kylee excelled at cross country and track, qualifying and competing at Howard Wood Relays, the Sioux City Relays at Morningside, and state for track. 

Kylee would have graduated as Valedictorian with at least a 4.2 GPA. She started college studies as a junior in high school, and by her senior year she was a full-time college student taking classes from colleges in South Dakota and from Grand Canyon University. Kylee was president of both the National Honor Society and of the FCCLA branches in her school. She was nominated for and accepted into the National High School Student Scholars Association, as well as the Leadership Academy through Augustana Academy. Kylee also ran a high school Bible study at her school, and was an active member of HOSA, S.W.A.T., and Educators Rising. She had been nominated for and chosen for an early certification program through DSU to receive a certificate for teaching in early education. She worked two jobs, one in the morning as a teacher assistant in the pre-kindergarten program for Beresford Public Schools, and the other in the afternoons for a daycare in Sioux Falls. Kylee was very dedicated to our God and her faith, serving on the childcare team at Ransom Church and helping out with multiple other serve teams and projects like Shoes for Shortiez, Adopt a Teacher, The Christmas Store project, No More Orphans, and others. She would often help her mom with Compassion team and on Guest Services. Kylee started an online beginning Bible study platform on Instagram to help other teens and young adults to work on finding their confidence in their faith, and lived by the motto "Let's Make Heaven Crowded". Kylee adopted a child through Children International, and faithfully donated money to other children, human rights, and animal welfare causes. She donated time to the Sioux Falls Banquet, the Humane Society, and loved attending Z8 events, going to Tre (which is a fellowship of young adult Christians), and her young adults Bible study group through Ransom Church. 

Kylee was already actively working toward her degree in Elementary Education with a Christian emphasis from Grand Canyon University. She had received several scholarships, both from GCU and private sources, and was already a member of GCU's Honor College. Kylee was planning to move to Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, Arizona this fall and was excited to start her college experience with her sister who attends there and friends she had already made when doing her Discovery trip there. Her and her new friends texted every day and had big plans of being roommates and Lopes. Kylee's plans were to teach for a few years, start a Christian daycare, and within that daycare have a small Christian Pre-K program she could offer other parents as well as be able to raise her own babies up in. Beyond her outside accomplishments, Kylee was an amazing daughter, sister, granddaughter, great granddaughter, niece, and friend. She was genuinely kind and softhearted, always wanting the best for others and being a friend to anyone who needed one. With an active social life, she was blessed to have several longtime friends that were more like extended sisters and brothers. Having a big heart, she was known to drag home stray animals, and never hesitated to get up during the night and to take on bottle duty as a foster mom to our many episodes of orphaned kittens, bunnies, raccoons, and whatever else we seemed to have shown up on our doorstep. 

An over achiever with the biggest heart, she loved deeply and had an old soul before her time. We are forever humbled and endlessly grateful for the incredible and wonderful, beautiful and selfless daughter we were blessed by God to have for such a short time. She gave so much of herself to others, often choosing other's happiness over her own, stating that doing so was what made her heart happy. While it was not what we would have ever wanted, we are so incredibly thankful that if she can't be here with us, she found her way home and God has her now. Thank you for loving her and being a part of her life.

Kylee Jean Collins

July 13, 2007 - February 21, 2026