Nancy Elizabeth McDaniel

Nancy Elizabeth Clevenger McDaniel was born to Edwin and Sarah DeShazo in Memphis, Tennessee on June 29, 1944 while her father was serving in combat in Europe. She died on January 2, 2023 at Three Oaks Hospice in McKinney, Texas. Nancy attended Harding Academy of Memphis and graduated from Treadwell High School in 1962, later graduating from Memphis State University with an art degree in 1966. She was a painter and sketch artist for most of her adult life.

Nancy met her future husband, Odell Clevenger, in Gladewater, Texas and she moved to Longview after they were married in 1968. She had three sons, and the family moved to rural Union Grove, Texas in 1977. Despite being a city girl all of her life, she quickly adapted to life in the country and even decided that she liked it.

While helping her sons through 4-H and FFA, she learned to raise chickens, ducks, goats, geese, hogs, and a couple of cattle. She volunteered for many years at Union Grove High School and was named an “Honorary Chapter Farmer” by the local FFA chapter. At her tallest, she was 5’1 and weighed a little over 100 pounds soaking wet. She was always soft-spoken, kind, and generous, and she preferred to work behind the scenes.

She was also tough, and when the situation required it, she would softly but firmly tell people exactly what they needed to hear. She beat cancer twice, outlived her doctors’ predictions repeatedly, and once drove a particularly ill-tempered bull back to its pasture using a pitch fork. She was also reasonably proficient with a rifle. After her husband Odell died in 1995, she eventually moved back to Tennessee to care for her mother.

In 2008, while living in Tennessee, some friends at the East Shelby Church of Christ introduced her to Lindy McDaniel, a retired baseball player. They were married a short time later and traveled extensively as he spoke to churches in different parts of the United States. He was a great blessing to her until his death in 2020.

Nancy was preceded in death by her parents and is survived by her three sons and two daughters-in-law, Ty and Leona, Trae and Julie, and Thad, as well as four grandchildren: Truth, Pate, Ethan, and Elizabeth. She is also survived by two younger brothers and a special sister-in-law: Guy DeShazo and his wife Judy, and Eddy DeShazo. She was greatly blessed by Kathi Watters, a stepdaughter who treated her like her own mom, and by stepson Dale McDaniel and stepdaughter Susie McDaniel Miles. Other survivors include numerous cousins, nieces, nephews, sisters-in-law and brothers-in-law, her ex-officio grandson, Jonathan Durham, and three great aunts: Betty Mullins, 93, Anne Mullins, 97, and Kathleen Blank, 98.

Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. on Friday, January 6, 2023 at Charles W. Smith and Sons Funeral Home, 2343 Lake Road, Lavon, Texas, with Chuck Durham presiding. A reception room will be available before and after the service. A graveside memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. on Saturday, January 7, 2023 at the Old White Oak Cemetery at 121 E. Bingham Road in White Oak, Texas, with Kenny Peden presiding. A reception will be held afterwards at the Gladewater Chamber of Commerce, 215 N. Main St, Gladewater, Texas. In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to Sacred Selections, https://sacredselections.org/.../sacred-selections-dallas/, 4144 Murfreesboro, Tennessee 37128, or the Union Grove FFA Chapter, 11220 Union Grove Road, Gladewater, Texas 75647.

“Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.” – Psalm 116:15