Val Wayne McDannel's Obituary
Val McDannel passed into the arms of his loving Savior on Saturday, February 24, 2024, at the age of 59 in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.
Val Wayne McDannel was born on April 10, 1964, in Las Vegas, Nevada, to Mary Elizabeth Holmes and Val Robert McDannel. In 1983, Val graduated from Portales High School in Portales, New Mexico. He immediately joined the US Navy and proudly served his country on the USS Hoel and as an instructor at Great Lakes Naval Training Center until 1993. He was a recipient of the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal. In his post-military career, he worked as an electronics and mechanical technician in the aerospace and defense sector, most notably at Ball Aerospace and II-VI Aerospace & Defense.
Val married his high school sweetheart, Marcia Ann Jenkins, on June 6, 1987, in Portales, New Mexico. After completing his military service, the two moved to Thornton, Colorado to settle down and raise their two daughters. In 2022, the pair relocated to Broken Arrow, Oklahoma to be near their children and grandchildren. Val absolutely loved being a grandfather and an Okie.
Val was an active member of North Metro Church in Thornton, CO for 27 years and of Evergreen Baptist Church in Bixby, OK for 1.5 years. Many summers, he and his family spent a week volunteering on church-building trips around the country with the Mobile Baptist Builders. He also served on multiple Southern Baptist Disaster Relief teams after hurricanes struck the Gulf Coast. He loved cooking, German Shepherds, guns & shooting, studying the End Times, and spoiling his grandbabies. Above all, he loved spending time with his family and never missed an opportunity to express how much he loved them and how proud he was of them.
Val is lovingly remembered for his kindness, authenticity, humor, mischief, generosity, his desire to serve others, his loyalty, and his protectiveness—especially over his family. He had a deep sense of right and wrong, but beneath the tough exterior, he had an extremely tender heart. Few will forget the mischievous glint in his eye when he was jokingly giving somebody a hard time. He was quite the handyman—he loved teaching people (especially his daughters) how to do stuff, and he was known for his ability to find a technical, mechanical, or functional solution to anything. He believed in doing things right the first time.
Val was preceded in death by his mother, Mary Tackett; father Val Robert McDannel; stepfather Kenneth Tackett; and sisters Lori Farrell and Barbara Sutherland. He is survived by his wife, Marcia McDannel of Broken Arrow, OK; two daughters Taylor (Daniel) McLaughlin of Norman, OK and Tara (Joel) Leasure of Broken Arrow, OK; grandchildren Aiden, Maicy, and Liam; stepmother Anne McDannel of Rio Rancho, NM; siblings Audie Hankins, Kenneth Allen Tackett, Dawn (Randy) Allen, Susan Saunier, and Andrew (Grace) Sutherland; cousin Cheryl (Chris) Joris; and eight nieces and nephews.
The burial service will be held at Fort Gibson National Cemetery on Friday, March 1, 2024 at 12:30pm. A celebration of Val’s life will take place at Evergreen Baptist Church of Bixby, OK on Saturday, March 2, 2024 at 2:30pm. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to Oklahoma Baptist Homes for Children at www.obhc.org.
“Jesus told her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this?’”
John 11:25-26
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