Derrick Keller's Funeral Set for Today

The funeral for Derrick Keller, the 18-year-old former St. Louis Park baseball star after a battle with leukemia, will be today.

The service will be at 3:30 p.m. at  in St. Louis Park. A visitation will be held one hour prior. 

As an expression of sympathy, memorials can be sent to: Derrick Keller Fund, , 5000 West 36th St., St. Louis Park, MN, 55416.

Keller was during the 2011 summer baseball season. The soon-to-be-freshman at Southwest Minnesota State University said he was getting tired a lot faster than normal and suffering headaches after games. The diagnosis came on Aug. 1.

“I was in shock,” Keller said in a November 2011 interview with St. Louis Park Patch. “I’ve been healthy all my life. How could this happen to me?”

Keller underwent a bone marrow transplant, and by this past May, was leukemia free. However, the transplant left his immune system weakened, and Keller was , or CMV.

He had his ups and downs with the virus as his lungs filled with blood, forcing Keller onto an oscillator to help with his breathing. He died around 4 p.m. Tuesday.

"I know I speak for the SLP Baseball Community when I say we just lost one of the best baseball players who ever wore an SLP on his chest," St. Louis Park City Council member and longtime local baseball supporter Steve Hallfin . "Having said that, we lost not only a great baseball player, but a better person."

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