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Sad news: Long-time Lucy fan, Lounge member Darrell Vail has died


Brock

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Very sad news: Long-time Lucy fan and Lounge member Darrell Vail died last summer, aged just 55, survived by his partner and many family members:

 

Darrell Duane Vail, 55, passed away suddenly on Tuesday, August 2, 2011, in Washington DC. Memorial graveside services will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday, August 13, 2011, at Rose Hill Cemetery in Cleburne with Rev. Darrel Beggs officiating.

 

Darrell was born July 14, 1956 in Big Spring to Harold W. and Angie (Carnahan) Vail. Beginning in the first grade, he attended Hillsboro schools and graduated from Hillsboro High School. As a youth, he was a member of Central Baptist Church in Hillsboro where he served in many capacities playing the piano, singing, going on mission trips and helping with Bible School. He received a Bachelor’s degree in Theology from Baylor University, a Master’s degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and also a Master’s degree in counseling from Texas Christian University. After working in Fort Worth for four years, he transferred to Washington DC where he worked for a private counseling firm. He preached some youth revivals and filled in as a supply preacher on many occasions.

 

An avid outdoors man, Darrell enjoyed participating in kayaking, hiking, mountain climbing, repelling and his favorite, spelunking. He loved archeology and traveling, and spent two months while in college in Israel working on an archeology dig at Timnah. Darrell was an avid fan of “I Love Lucy.”

 

For many years, he volunteered one day a week at an organization in DC called Food and Friends, preparing food for meals that were delivered daily to persons with HIV and their families. He was recently honored as the Outstanding Volunteer for that organization. He was also an active volunteer with Crisis Intervention.

 

Preceding him in death was his father in 1995.

 

Survivors include his mother, Angie Vail of Hillsboro; aunt, Sue Jo Hodges and husband, Jim, of Huntsville, AL; three cousins, Julie Peace and husband, Ty, of Woodstock, GA, Janice Fain and husband, John, of Huntsville, AL, and Jennifer Whitman and husband, David, of Huntsville, AL; eight second cousins; and many, many friends.

 

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Central Baptist Church Building Fund, P. O. Box 263, Hillsboro, TX 76645.

 

R.I.P. Darrell. :( I'll never forgive ya for letting Dick talk you out of buying Gale's pick-up truck! lol

 

For those of you who may not have had the pleasure of knowing him personally or only knew him through his board messages, or from other venues, he was just the nicest guy and will definitely be missed. In fact, he was quite missed at Lucy's 100th Birthday last year and people were asking where he and Dick were. Now, tragically, we know.

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Very sad news: Long-time Lucy fan and Lounge member Darrell Vail died last summer, aged just 55, survived by his partner and many family members:

 

Darrell Duane Vail, 55, passed away suddenly on Tuesday, August 2, 2011, in Washington DC. Memorial graveside services will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday, August 13, 2011, at Rose Hill Cemetery in Cleburne with Rev. Darrel Beggs officiating.

 

Darrell was born July 14, 1956 in Big Spring to Harold W. and Angie (Carnahan) Vail. Beginning in the first grade, he attended Hillsboro schools and graduated from Hillsboro High School. As a youth, he was a member of Central Baptist Church in Hillsboro where he served in many capacities playing the piano, singing, going on mission trips and helping with Bible School. He received a Bachelor’s degree in Theology from Baylor University, a Master’s degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and also a Master’s degree in counseling from Texas Christian University. After working in Fort Worth for four years, he transferred to Washington DC where he worked for a private counseling firm. He preached some youth revivals and filled in as a supply preacher on many occasions.

 

An avid outdoors man, Darrell enjoyed participating in kayaking, hiking, mountain climbing, repelling and his favorite, spelunking. He loved archeology and traveling, and spent two months while in college in Israel working on an archeology dig at Timnah. Darrell was an avid fan of “I Love Lucy.”

 

For many years, he volunteered one day a week at an organization in DC called Food and Friends, preparing food for meals that were delivered daily to persons with HIV and their families. He was recently honored as the Outstanding Volunteer for that organization. He was also an active volunteer with Crisis Intervention.

 

Preceding him in death was his father in 1995.

 

Survivors include his mother, Angie Vail of Hillsboro; aunt, Sue Jo Hodges and husband, Jim, of Huntsville, AL; three cousins, Julie Peace and husband, Ty, of Woodstock, GA, Janice Fain and husband, John, of Huntsville, AL, and Jennifer Whitman and husband, David, of Huntsville, AL; eight second cousins; and many, many friends.

 

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Central Baptist Church Building Fund, P. O. Box 263, Hillsboro, TX 76645.

 

R.I.P. Darrell. :( I'll never forgive ya for letting Dick talk you out of buying Gale's pick-up truck! lol

 

For those of you who may not have had the pleasure of knowing him personally or only knew him through his board messages, or from other venues, he was just the nicest guy and will definitely be missed. In fact, he was quite missed at Lucy's 100th Birthday last year and people were asking where he and Dick were. Now, tragically, we know.

So, why this long to find out about it? :lucymeh:

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He posted every once in a while on the old Lounge but I can't recall what his username was right now.

Thanks, was just curious. At first i thought my reply to your DON'T KNOW, should have been WONDER WHY and then we could have finihed up all the dialogue to the show about Ricky not having heard from Hollywood yet. As a sort of mini tribute to the man.

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Always sad to hear of anyone too young passing, even if you didn't know them personally..... I think his time on the (old) board was before mine, but I'm still curious what his AKA was.... sounds like he was a great guy.

 

And this really got me: "A lemon yellow butterfly continuously lingered landing time and time again on the memorial bouquet. It just had to be Darrell." So sad.

 

:(

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Just saw this very sad news. Darrell was a truly wonderful guy and this comes as a shock. He was an avid fan that attended our Burbank Lucy Conventions, as well as the Jamestown Festivals.

 

Darrell's keen knowledge of all things "Lucy" was amazing. Years ago he provided us with his research on "Lucy in California" which was a 60+ page outline of places that involved Lucy in some way. A truly giant treasure trove of information and beautifully researched. In fact, I asked his permission if we could use some of this on our Lucy Tour Bus explorations as part of the conventions. He did not hesitate in the least and readily shared his work. In fact, he sent me an updated catalog which I still treasure. Of course, upon hearing that we were doing this tour, he signed up to be a part of it when we first started them. Though I was not the tour guide on the buses...I hopped bus #1, took to the microphone and publicly thanked Darrell for all his hard work and asked everyone to give him a rousing round of applause. His work was truly appreciated.

 

Another quick story:

Many years back, I was asked to be a judge at one of the Jamestown Halloween parties, alongside Elisabeth Edwards, Lucie's secretary. She was a little reticent about dressing up...as we were just judges of the costume contest. Well, with a little prodding, we finally decided to go as Fred and Ethel, completely done up in what we thought was unique and a little different: the Mertzes appearing in their pajamas and robes in the Ricardos apartment, right after their roof falls in on them, after Ricky's band plays "The Mexican Hat Dance." We truly went all out and thought NO ONE would think of this type of costume. WRONG! As soon as we made our way into the ballroom all decked out, making our way to the front (complete with orchestra playing Ricky's song)...who should I run right into, but Darrell Vail...in the same exact costume! There he was, perfectly dressed as Fred Mertz in his robe and PJ's with the ceiling lamp fixture on top of his head!! I cracked up and couldn't stop laughing. We took a wonderful shot together and renewed our friendship. (I hadn't seen him in years.)

 

I'm so sorry to hear the news of his passing...albeit quite late...but just know that this was a truly lovely and gentle man.

 

RIP, DV!

 

Rick

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Very sad news: Long-time Lucy fan and Lounge member Darrell Vail died last summer, aged just 55, survived by his partner and many family members:

 

Darrell Duane Vail, 55, passed away suddenly on Tuesday, August 2, 2011, in Washington DC. Memorial graveside services will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday, August 13, 2011, at Rose Hill Cemetery in Cleburne with Rev. Darrel Beggs officiating.

 

Darrell was born July 14, 1956 in Big Spring to Harold W. and Angie (Carnahan) Vail. Beginning in the first grade, he attended Hillsboro schools and graduated from Hillsboro High School. As a youth, he was a member of Central Baptist Church in Hillsboro where he served in many capacities playing the piano, singing, going on mission trips and helping with Bible School. He received a Bachelor’s degree in Theology from Baylor University, a Master’s degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and also a Master’s degree in counseling from Texas Christian University. After working in Fort Worth for four years, he transferred to Washington DC where he worked for a private counseling firm. He preached some youth revivals and filled in as a supply preacher on many occasions.

 

An avid outdoors man, Darrell enjoyed participating in kayaking, hiking, mountain climbing, repelling and his favorite, spelunking. He loved archeology and traveling, and spent two months while in college in Israel working on an archeology dig at Timnah. Darrell was an avid fan of “I Love Lucy.”

 

For many years, he volunteered one day a week at an organization in DC called Food and Friends, preparing food for meals that were delivered daily to persons with HIV and their families. He was recently honored as the Outstanding Volunteer for that organization. He was also an active volunteer with Crisis Intervention.

 

Preceding him in death was his father in 1995.

 

Survivors include his mother, Angie Vail of Hillsboro; aunt, Sue Jo Hodges and husband, Jim, of Huntsville, AL; three cousins, Julie Peace and husband, Ty, of Woodstock, GA, Janice Fain and husband, John, of Huntsville, AL, and Jennifer Whitman and husband, David, of Huntsville, AL; eight second cousins; and many, many friends.

 

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Central Baptist Church Building Fund, P. O. Box 263, Hillsboro, TX 76645.

 

R.I.P. Darrell. :( I'll never forgive ya for letting Dick talk you out of buying Gale's pick-up truck! lol

 

For those of you who may not have had the pleasure of knowing him personally or only knew him through his board messages, or from other venues, he was just the nicest guy and will definitely be missed. In fact, he was quite missed at Lucy's 100th Birthday last year and people were asking where he and Dick were. Now, tragically, we know.

Thanks for letting us know about this, Brock. I did a little googling to see if I could see what he looked like and sure enough while I didn't know him I certainly remember seeing him and his partner at the conventions back in the day. So sad, too young. Hope he didn't suffer too much.

 

Also sad to me is that despite all his obvious good works and love of his fellow humanity, had you not mentioned he had a life partner, you'd never know it from his obituary as he wasn't mentioned at ALL in the list of his survivors, family, not even as a friend.

 

What a pitiful statement in this day and age that the love of someone's life -- and I presume they were together for years -- isn't even given the respect and due they should be given at such a difficult time after such a profound loss. It ain't right.

sleep.gif

 

 

 

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Also sad to me is that despite all his obvious good works and love of his fellow humanity, had you not mentioned he had a life partner, you'd never know it from his obituary as he wasn't mentioned at ALL in the list of his survivors, family, not even as a friend.

 

I know. It's disgusting. I was enraged when I first read the obit. They were devoted to each other and Darrell took such great care of Dick when he was seriously ill for many years.

 

What a pitiful statement in this day and age that the love of someone's life -- and I presume they were together for years -- isn't even given the respect and due they should be given at such a difficult time after such a profound loss. It ain't right.

sleep.gif

 

Completely agree with you. And, yes, I believe they were together for decades. They were a great couple too. You could tell that Darrell was definitely the big Lucy fan in the relationship, but Dick always went along for the ride without a fuss, even though you could tell he wasn't really feeling it. LOL Whatever Darrell dressed up as for the masquerades he was invariably dressed as Percy Livermore -- except for one year where he dressed as Mr. Merriweather and, in an ill-advised costume, Darrell the ghost of Tillie. LOL

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I know. It's disgusting. I was enraged when I first read the obit. They were devoted to each other and Darrell took such great care of Dick when he was seriously ill for many years.

 

 

 

Completely agree with you. And, yes, I believe they were together for decades.

You're "good pizza"! lucie.JPG

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Sadly I don't know who he is. If there was a username I would remember. That's very sad news. :(

 

And speaking of board members passing, I just have this funny feeling that Josh (DizzyArnizzy) may have as well, since the last we heard from him, he was sick. And that was almost 5 years ago!

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And speaking of board members passing, I just have this funny feeling that Josh (DizzyArnizzy) may have as well, since the last we heard from him, he was sick. And that was almost 5 years ago!

 

Josh's father was ill, but I don't believe he was. I have the feeling that Josh is just fine.

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Josh's father was ill, but I don't believe he was. I have the feeling that Josh is just fine.

No, he may be right, Josh confided in me that at the end, he was the one who was sick, i can't believe it was F I V E years ago though, i checked to see if i had his address but can't bring myself to send a letter as i worry the answer might not be good, he was one terrific guy, one of the nicest most considerate i ever knew here or anywhere else.

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Thanks for letting us know about this, Brock. I did a little googling to see if I could see what he looked like and sure enough while I didn't know him I certainly remember seeing him and his partner at the conventions back in the day. So sad, too young. Hope he didn't suffer too much.

 

Also sad to me is that despite all his obvious good works and love of his fellow humanity, had you not mentioned he had a life partner, you'd never know it from his obituary as he wasn't mentioned at ALL in the list of his survivors, family, not even as a friend.

 

What a pitiful statement in this day and age that the love of someone's life -- and I presume they were together for years -- isn't even given the respect and due they should be given at such a difficult time after such a profound loss. It ain't right.

sleep.gif

 

Just adding a 'tidbit' to this: my source says that he was taking loving care of his long-time partner, who is in a nursing home; and then, he dies first; now, THAT IS SAD!!!!

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Just adding a 'tidbit' to this: my source says that he was taking loving care of his long-time partner, who is in a nursing home; and then, he dies first; now, THAT IS SAD!!!!

Yes it is and in my opinion, there is NOTHING as time consuming that wears you out completely as being a caregiver for anybody.

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Just adding a 'tidbit' to this: my source says that he was taking loving care of his long-time partner, who is in a nursing home; and then, he dies first; now, THAT IS SAD!!!!

Thanks, Joyce that's much more than a tidbit! How very, very sad then but in a bittersweet way I think, a nice "ending" to a long, true love story. I'll never experience something like that! Good for them. God Bless 'em. :lucydesi:

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Thanks, Joyce that's much more than a tidbit! How very, very sad then but in a bittersweet way I think, a nice "ending" to a long, true love story. I'll never experience something like that! Good for them. God Bless 'em. :lucydesi:

 

I don't want to ruin the feeling or anything, but I believe Darrell's partner's health significantly improved over the past three years or so and returned home. That being said, being a caregiver will take its toll on anyone.

 

On a sidenote, while rummaging through my files to find the 2008 Jamestown auction catalogue, I found a note Darrell had written me back in 2008. Included was a copy of a letter he bought that was written by Gale. He was such a nice guy. :(

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I don't want to ruin the feeling or anything, but I believe Darrell's partner's health significantly improved over the past three years or so and returned home. That being said, being a caregiver will take its toll on anyone.

 

On a sidenote, while rummaging through my files to find the 2008 Jamestown auction catalogue, I found a note Darrell had written me back in 2008. Included was a copy of a letter he bought that was written by Gale. He was such a nice guy. :(

Nice coda, learning that they got to be reunited/the partner got to come home after all. Sweet! peachonthebeach.JPG
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Thanks, Joyce that's much more than a tidbit! How very, very sad then but in a bittersweet way I think, a nice "ending" to a long, true love story. I'll never experience something like that! Good for them. God Bless 'em. :lucydesi:

 

Don't give up 'hope', Joey; maybe your and my 'significant other' true love #whatever, is just around the corner. Yeh, right, I should live so long.... but, I never give up 'hope'.... Loving you, JK

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  • 2 weeks later...

Though I didn't know him at all, it's very sad news to hear of his passing. Here's a photo of him on the Lucyfan site with a collection of Jello recipes from the period of their sponsorship of MY FAVORITE HUSBAND.

 

http://www.lucyfan.com/lucyunvailed1.html

 

Also noticed on the everythinglucy blog he was among the ten sponsors contributing $1,000 each to reestablish the Lucille Ball Scholarship in 2008 http://everythinglucy.blogspot.com/2008/05/lucy-desi-center-reestablishes-lucille.html

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Though I didn't know him at all, it's very sad news to hear of his passing. Here's a photo of him on the Lucyfan site with a collection of Jello recipes from the period of their sponsorship of MY FAVORITE HUSBAND.

 

http://www.lucyfan.com/lucyunvailed1.html

 

Also noticed on the everythinglucy blog he was among the ten sponsors contributing $1,000 each to reestablish the Lucille Ball Scholarship in 2008 http://everythinglucy.blogspot.com/2008/05/lucy-desi-center-reestablishes-lucille.html

Well, thanks for showing us a pic of the man we are talking about, i do remember that story on the site.

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