Obituaries

Ricky “Renshi Rick” Wayne Turner Sr., 66, of Pocahontas, Arkansas, passed away on June 18, 2020, at the Lawrence Memorial Hospital, in Walnut Ridge, Arkansas. Rick was born on July 1, 1953, in Rockford, Illinois, to Billy Charles and Hassel Coleen Haas Turner.

Donald Edward McFall, 79, of Pocahontas, Arkansas, passed away at the John L. McClellan Memorial Veterans Hospital’s COVID unit in Little Rock, Arkansas, on June 16, 2020. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, on August 30, 1940, to A.L. and Edna (Watson) McFall, Don was an avid outdoorsman, a veteran of the Vietnam war, a defender of the downtrodden, fluent in several languages, and a connoisseur of international foods and cultures. Don grew up in Pocahontas where he was a boy scout, part of the class of ’58, and a lifelong member of the Methodist church. He attended the University of Arkansas, where he was a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. After college, Don enlisted in the U.S. Army. He later attended Officer Candidate School and commissioned into the Field Artillery branch. He volunteered for Vietnam in 1968, at the very height of the war. He fought valiantly and was awarded a Bronze Star for Valor. Years later, while recounting the most intense fighting he experienced, Don remarked, “I was one of the only ones that didn’t die or get wounded. Even my XO (Executive Officer) got a Purple Heart. I was just lucky, I guess.” Even though he escaped physical injury, Vietnam took its toll. He continued fighting long after the war ended, both physically and mentally, as a 100% disabled victim of Agent Orange. After Vietnam, Don served one tour in Germany before being honorably discharged from the Army at the rank of Captain. He then returned to Pocahontas and joined the family business, McFall Chevrolet. While Don’s official occupation for many years was car salesman, he focused most of his energy on hunting and fishing. Fall, winter, and spring consisted of hunting whatever was in season. Summer was time to head to Jenkins boat dock on the White River to fish for trout or to haul the family to Wyoming to enjoy the great outdoors and to fish, or to climb in the boat with his wife and run trotlines on the Black River. Ultimately, Don decided the car business was not for him. He was able to continue making his way through a series of eclectic business ventures, including commercial truck imports, one of the first cell phone stores in Pocahontas, bail bonding, and, as long as he was able, providing some of the best Labrador Retriever training, guided duck hunts, and duck calling in the South. Nobody loved hunting more than Don McFall, and he will be missed by his hunting buddies. His legendary duck guiding bagged him hundreds of ducks, good memories with his sons, grandsons, and son in law, loyal customers from across the country, and many good stories with his hunting buddies, including Mongo, Gary, and David. The only thing Don loved more than hunting and fishing was “his girl,” Kay. She was the light of his life. She followed him to the ends of the earth, through floods and muck and mud. She would climb in the boat with him in any weather, even though she never learned to swim. Wherever Don was, Kay was with him. They were inseparable for more than 32 years, and were only kept apart by the COVID-19 pandemic, unable to hold hands or be together at the very end. Don was preceded in death by his parents, A.L. and Edna McFall, and by one sister, Judy Garner. He is survived by his wife, Marilyn Kay (Tucker) McFall; one sister, Joyce (GH Hovagimyan) Castleberry, of Damascus, Pennsylvania; one brother, Charles (Valerie Irby) McFall, of Germantown, Tennessee; one sister-in law, Faye Crawford, of Bono, Arkansas, and one brother-in-law, Rick Garner, of Savannah, Georgia; five children: Arielle Sohn of Bryant, Arkansas, Donald (Amy) McFall, of Cabot, Arkansas, John McFall (Lindsey) of San Antonio, Texas, Tommy (Carolyn) Brown of Mt. Pleasant, Texas, and Dana Brown (Kirk) Shaffer of Arlington, Virginia; ten grandchildren: Leslie South, Tucker Brown, Madeline McFall, Cameron McFall, Jackson Shaffer, John Sohn, Isabel McFall, Carter McFall, Alexander Sohn, and Samuel Brown; two great grandchildren, Charlie and Marshall South; and a host of cousins, nieces, and nephews. Due to current travel restrictions, a service and final interment is tentatively scheduled for August 29th in celebration of what would have been Don’s 80th birthday. Services are under the direction of McNabb Funeral Home.

Jennielea Tyler Waddle, resident of the Randolph Home Nursing Center, in Pocahontas, Arkansas, passed away on June 22, 2020, at St. Bernard’s Medical Center, in Jonesboro, Arkansas. Jennielea was born on July 02, 1930, to Reginal Tyler and Lura Reeves Tyler, of the Stokes community.