Sunrise for Louis Hayward Henderson was October 12, 1961, in Washington DC, to the late Hunion L. and Rebecca Henderson. Sunset came on October 30, 2021, at Washington Hospital Center.

At the age of three Louis was placed in the home of Floyd B. and Mary E. Taylor where he would be raised.

Louis attended Washington, DC Public Schools and graduated from Burdick Vocational School in 1979. Louis joined the Armed Forces in 1981 and was assigned to the Army’s 15th Combats Support Hospital (FORSCOM) in Fort Belvoir, Virginia as a Patient Case Specialist. Louis left the military to pursue a new mission, helping children in foster care to find permanent placement and a home free from abuse and neglect. Louis later continued his education and earned a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Human Services from Lincoln University.

In 1994 Louis became Founding Officer and President of the National Association of Former Foster Care Children of America (NAFFCCA). Throughout his career in Human Services, he formed many successful alliances, but it was Louis’s lifelong commitment to families and community with his focus on where his heart was, on juvenile justice and the foster care community. He deeply cared about making a difference and shaping the lives of foster children.

Louis touched the lives of everyone he encountered and made all feel welcomed. He worked diligently to empower underserved youths in the foster care system by providing the services needed to help decrease the risk of experiencing neglect, abuse, or violence. Louis provided the leadership for a nonprofit organization called Siblings Together that began in February 2012. Siblings Together’s mission is to maintain and strengthen the lives between separated siblings who come into foster care or adoption. Louis’s goal was to give children the success needed in their families, schools, and community. Under his leadership in 2015-2018 Siblings Together helped empower young people in designated neighborhoods of Washington, DC who participated in the Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) to become employable by aligning them with the resources needed to become successful.

Louis’s family meant more to him than anything else in the world. If you asked Louis, his greatest accomplishment wasn’t his career it was being a father. It was without a doubt his greatest source of pride and inspiration.

Louis was known for his love of family cookouts, cooking, photography, jazz music, traveling and his cat, Storm. Anyone who knew Louis was touched by his kindness, humor, and outgoing personality that was contagious to everyone he met. Louis loved a good practical joke and inflicted his siblings, especially his brothers with practical jokes often at their expense.

Louis was proceeded in death by his parents: Hunion and Rebecca Henderson; foster parents: Floyd and Mary Taylor; siblings: Joseph Jones, Loraine Hinton, Leroy Hinton, Jerome Hinton, and Vanessa Knight. He is survived by his children: Danae Henderson-Clayton (Brandon), Tenia Henderson, Zariah Lightford-Henderson, Aliya Adams, Logan Butler, Simone Henderson, Louis Henderson, Jr and Zoe Nyamekye. Two grandchildren: Aiden and Dreux Clayton. His siblings: Aaron Hinton, Michelle Hinton-Lyons (Sid), Stephanie Fielder (Craig), Peter Henderson (Melanie), Patricia Henderson-Saunders (Kenny), Jerry Taylor (Yolanda), Pamela Henderson-Bennett (Leroy), Hunion Henderson, Gary Henderson (Michelle), Brian Henderson (Karen), Benita Harrison (Andre), Stacey Henderson, Kristina Henderson (Tracey), Jackie Hayes (Author), Angela (HO), Domonique Premier (Jackie), and Demetria Broadnax (Stephen). Two aunts, Dorothy Brown and Patricia Caldwell and a host of nieces, nephews, and cousins. Devoted friends: Thomas Ava, Rev. George Holmes and Jenis Patterson (Momma Jo).

You never said I’m leaving, you never said goodbye.

You were gone before we knew it, and only God knew why.

A million times we needed you, a million times we cried.

If love alone could’ve saved you, you never would’ve died.

In life we loved you dearly, in death we love you still.

In our hearts you hold a place that no one could ever fill.

It broke our hearts to lose you, but you didn’t go alone.

For part of us went with you, the day God took you home.

“By: Tomisha Michelle Marrie Rowe”

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