Warren McLean Haley (Mis Judith Marie)

On Sunday, July 18th, 2021, Warren ended his years long struggle with mental illness. Despite multiple efforts to help him, life proved to be too challenging.

As a small child he was shy and slow to warm up, but when he decided to trust you, people were often pleasantly surprised at how friendly and talkative he was. He was incredibly intelligent and curious about the world. Once he did a report on dinosaurs… during the summer… for fun. We’ve had pets in our home since before he was born, so he grew up learning how to care for, and be kind to animals.

He showed an early affinity for music, picking up the viola in 6^th grade, and became quite good very quickly. The following year, he also started playing the clarinet in addition to the viola, and he was the only student that year to be in both band and orchestra. The next year he switched to playing the bass clarinet, and he was the only student in the school to play that instrument. He was an avid Guitar Hero player starting at age 6, and at age 14 he started learning how to play the actual guitar, and that’s where he found his true love. He learned how to play the acoustic guitar, electric guitar, and bass guitar, and he would spend HOURS messing around with various settings on his instruments and on his amps, trying to find the perfect sound for the song that he was playing.

His big-ish break was when he joined with John Hess, and they formed the band The Schwacksters. They competed in the Battle of the Bands at Bountiful High School and ended up advancing to compete at the state level. He LOVED performing at Bountiful’s open mic on Saturdays and would take advantage of every opportunity to play his instruments.

Recently Warren was coming to terms with their gender identity. As a family, we tried our best to understand that struggle, and be open to the fluid nature of the process. For years he struggled with undiagnosed mental illnesses, which was difficult for all of us, but most of all for him. At times Warren wanted help which was not reasonable or possible for us to give him, and other times he refused the help that was offered to him by professionals and those who loved him. His mental health rapidly declined over the past year, and we were desperate to help him. However, he was an adult, so we were limited in what we could do.

We are grateful for the 19 years that we had with him, and he will be loved and missed every single day. Warren was not large in stature, but he was large in presence. He now has the peace which eluded him in life.

Warren is survived by his great grandma Alice Nichols, grandmas Elaine Lynn, Maurine Openshaw, and Pattie Haley, father Mark Haley, mother Joycelyn Haley (Paul Corollo), brother Andrew Haley, sisters Jade Haley and Toni Robison (Nick Stagg), brother Liam Haley, and many aunts, uncles, and cousins. He is preceded in death by great grandpas Fred Nichols and Wayne Lynn, great grandma Roita Lynn, and grandpas Michael Lynn and Merrill Haley.

Services will be held July 24^th, 2021 at 10:00am at the LDS Church building at 1750 N. 900 W. West Bountiful, Utah, 84087. Family is invited to gather at 9:00am, and a family luncheon will be provided after the service.

The services will be livestreamed, and a link will be available on Saturday morning. Those who are interested in watching the livestream can text Joycelyn at 801-864-0568.

If you are struggling with suicidal ideation, please reach out for help. Call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255, or text SHARE to 741741

Donations in Warren’s name can be made to Flourish Therapy (flourishtherapy.org) which provides free and low-cost therapy to LGBTQ+ folks in Utah, The Jed Foundation (jedfoundation.org), a non-profit that focuses on suicide prevention in teens and young adults, and the National Alliance on Mental Health, (nami.org), which provides mental health resources to communities across the country.