Kid reporter/ASU student who interviewed Obama at age 11 dies of natural causes
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From staff reports
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — The 11-year-old “student reporter” who gained national acclaim when he interviewed President Obama at the White House in 2009 has died of natural causes.
Damon Weaver had been studying communications at Albany State University.
Family members said Weaver was 23 when he died on May 1. Further details were not released.
Weaver was 11 when he interviewed Obama for 10 minutes on Aug. 13, 2009, asking questions about school lunches, conflict resolution, bullying and how to succeed.
Weaver asked Obama to “be his homeboy,” saying then-Vice President Joe Biden had already accepted a similar invitation. The president shook the young reporter’s hand and said, “Absolutely.”
Weaver used that widely-reported interview to later get interviews with Oprah Winfrey and several well-known athletes.
Weaver got his start in journalism in the fifth grade when he volunteered for the school newscast at K.E. Cunningham/Canal Point Elementary in a farm community in Florida.
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