Darrell Lesley Bolton

I met Darrell on a blind date and knew how special he was the first time I saw him with his family, especially with his niece Carey. How do you not fall in love with a guy whose idea of a perfect date is taking a 2 year old to the park? He was at his best in the roles of first Uncle, then Dad, Coach, Grandfather, Uncle, and at the last even after he was sick he was beginning to like the idea of being a great-grandfather even if he did think he was too young. He was absolutely born to fill those roles. He was a true Pied Piper when it came to children.
Both of my parents loved Darrell as if he really was their son too. He spent countless hours helping around their house, taking them to visits to Doctors visits and driving them anywhere they wanted to go. Not many men would cheerfully use vacation time to take care of in-laws!
From the first year Jeffery was old enough for Little League, you could find Darrell working on fields, coaching, unloading candy for the concession stand, and just taking the time to encourage kids for most of his adult life. The hours didn't get too long even after he had worked a ten hr. day for him to be one of the last people to leave the fields and then it was only after everything was done to make sure things were ready for the next game or practice. Jeffery remembers his Dad working with him when he first started trying to throw a curve ball. After trying for a while to catch those wild pitches in the West Texas heat, Darrell's patience started to go and "D it Jeffery! Tell me when you are going to throw a curve ball. He even helped his brother David coach bases for his nieces Sarita and Shauna during their softball days. He didn't get to do this very often, so David had to make a point to remind him before every game "not to slap the girls on the butt" when they did something good. He even managed to enjoy Stephanie's reaction to the Rebel band. (That's even though he didn't really get the "band thing" and thought the Bulldog band was better if you had to like bands).
After his sons were in high school and the need for amateur coaches had passed, he and one of his "booster buddies" build a trailer so we could haul Lee Rebel Spirit items to sell for a fund raiser. He was even generous and brave enough to let me use his pick-up to haul the trailer so we could raise more money for extra equipment for the kids. It was about that time that Michael got his driver's license and learned a new phrase. "We can just drop a motor in it." Darrell had paid someone to do that to the 1964 Ford pick-up in perfect condition he bought when the boys were getting old enough for sports. Every coach needs a pick-up for equipment, you know. (First black or at least grey cloud in our marriage, but that's another story.) Darrell was willing to try and they spent a lot of time looking for parts and trying to get motors in muscle car bodies before turning it over to someone else. Our grandson Kameron came along next and for a while we had Michael's baseball, Kameron's soccer and baseball, plus our niece Tammy's softball when we were lucky enough for her tournaments to be in Midland, sometimes all on the same week-end and all over Midland! One of Kameron's favorite memories of his granddad was of them being "movies buds". Most weekends they would go to the movies all by themselves. Kameron just took a long time to adjust to movie seats. He thought his granddad's lap was way more comfortable. In fact on afternoon one of his friends went with them and was a little surprised to see Kam get in Darrell's lap. Guess for a boy 7or 8 years old that did look a little funny. Kameron just asked Christopher what he was looking at and finished the movie in Darrell's lap. We had already started joking about cooking and serving brisket sandwiches to help raise money for Hayden's and Ayden's Little League teams in the years to come. He even promised me a new electric smoker for my birthday this year so I could start practicing.
Darrell had a fascination with airplanes. I think he believed the "Commemorative Air Force moved their national headquarters to Midland just for him. He spent lots of Saturdays at their museum and the annual Air Show in October was one of the highlights of his year. He and his twin brother, Harold would usually manage to get together for that day and Darrell almost always came home sunburned, tired, thirsty, hungry, but happy.
Darrell worked for thirty years in various machine shops in Midland but it wasn't until he went to work for Home Hospice of Odessa/Midland about ten years ago that he found his true calling. Darrell had finally "found out what he wanted to be when he grew up" instead of just doing a good job for employers and making a living for his family. I don't believe he had ever been as satisfied with or as proud of any of his jobs as he was working in the Home Hospice DME department. One of his co-workers mentioned in a card that she missed hearing him humming and seeing his grin when he came into their office. That describes how Darrell felt about his job in a nutshell.
Matthew 7:16 - 17 tells us:
By their fruits you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.
When I think about all the time and effort Darrell put into being a good man and a good example to not only our sons and the one grandson who is grown but to all the other young people they brought into our lives; I can't help but think that God put that verse in the Bible at least in part as description of Darrell.
Darrell is survived by his wife Doris Bolton, children Jeffery Bolton and his wife Mary and Michael Bolton and his wife Jennifer, grandchildren Kameron Bolton, Kortnee Martindale, Alyssa Martindale, Chance Whiteley and Hayden Bolton, great grandchildren Ayden Pagett, two brothers David Bolton and Harold Bolton and his wife Shirley, step sisters Karon Sears and her husband Charles and Sondra Tredaway and her husband Reggie, Dorothy Stewart, step brother Robert Travis and his wife Shirley, brother and sister-in-law Calvin Cox and his wife Raylene, and many loving nieces and nephews. Darrell is preceded in death by his parents Herman and Hazel Bolton and sister Donna Carnett.
A funeral service to celebrate Darrell's life will be held on Saturday, May 12, 2012 at 2:00 PM at Life Fellowship of Allen 600 S. Jupiter Road Allen, Texas 75002. Darrell will be laid to rest on Monday, May 14, 2012 at 9:30 AM at DFW National Cemetery 2000 Mountain Creek Parkway Dallas, TX 75211.