Damon Weaver, The Youngest Person to Ever Interview Barack Obama, Dies at 23

Damon Weaver was studying communications at Albany State University.

In 2009 Damon Weaver, then an 11-year-old aspiring journalist, made headlines by becoming the youngest person to interview then-president Barack Obama at the White House. Weaver asked questions about school lunch programs and anti-bullying measures. Videos of the interview have been viewed over 100,000 times on YouTube. On May 1st, Weaver tragically passed of natural causes at the age of 23.

Weaver's sister Candace Hardy spoke about his life with the Palm Beach Post. After the interview with Obama, Weaver would go on to interview Oprah Winfrey and Dwyane Wade. After graduating high school, he began studying communications at Albany State University in Georgia.

"He was just a nice person," she said. "Genuine, very intelligent. Very outspoken [and] outgoing. He never said no to anybody. He was loved by everyone. No matter if it was a stranger, his mom or a family member, he was just a ball of light with so much energy. He was always positive, always had a smile on a face and he was always a joy to be around. He left an impact on a lot of people."

As a fifth grader at K.E. Cunningham/Canal Point Elementary school in Florida, Weaver volunteered for the school newscast. One of his former teachers, Brian Zimmerman, spoke about his upbeat personality in 2016.

"Damon was the kid who ran after me in the hall to tell me he was interested," Zimmerman said. "And right away, I just saw the potential for the way he was on camera. You could see his personality come through. He wasn’t nervous being on camera."