Audrey Terrell

Audrey Rebecca Deloney Terrell of Daingerfield, TX died at the age of 96 on Sunday, February 26, 2023. Born January 16, 1926 in Ozark, AL to John Oscar and Josie Luna Ezell Deloney, Audrey was the eldest sister among eleven siblings. Audrey met the love of her life, James F. Terrell, of Daingerfield, TX, when she was a teenager, thanks to U.S. Army efficiency. Rather than ship a pair of uniform pants big enough to fit Jim’s 6’2” frame to the new enlistee in Texas, the Army shipped Jim to the pants, which happened to be in Ozark. The rest is history. While Jim was storming the beaches at Normandy, Audrey completed her studies at Ozark High School, graduating in 1945. The two married that May and were inseparable for the next 57 years, until Jim’s death in 2002. Together, they raised two children, Jimmy and Becky, moving around the Texas panhandle and up to Garden City, KS for Jim’s work with the Gifford Hill Company. They settled back on the Terrell family farm in Daingerfield, TX in 1977, shortly before Jim retired. Audrey, however, never retired. As far as any of us could tell, she never even sat down. She was a true dynamo, always in action working with the cattle she and Jim raised on the farm; managing its timber; cultivating an expansive vegetable garden, then cooking and canning its bounty; operating a bustling interior decorating business designing and sewing drapery and other décor from her workshop in the old farmhouse; hand piecing quilts with her brother Wyatt and friends from church; hosting all the family birthday and holiday gatherings; and teaching her granddaughter everything from how to dig potatoes, to how to catch and clean a fish, use a sewing machine, bake a birthday cake, and drive a car. Just 5’2” tall, Audrey was fearless and as tough as they come. She emerged unscathed from many a standoff with a recalcitrant cow or local varmint, including coyotes, snakes, wild pigs and, one time, a cougar, always with one of her loyal farm dogs by her side. She earned the nicknames “Ardie Oakley” for getting after the armadillos with her .22 whenever they dug up her carefully manicured flower beds, and “Granny Sergeant” for making sure Jim and the rest of the family always knew—and always followed—their marching orders. She could help round up an escaped heifer in the morning and host a formal seated luncheon for fifty in the afternoon, and did it all with kindness, humility, and poise. Apart from the armadillos, she loved all the creatures on the farm and surrounding forests, especially the hummingbirds, cardinals, doves and woodpeckers she enticed to take up residence in her backyard with feeders that she insisted, even in her last days, be kept well-stocked in her absence. She cared for her human neighbors, too, carrying out a weekly ministry to visit patients at the Windsor nursing home and serving as a Sunday School teacher at the First Baptist Church of Daingerfield, where she was a longtime congregant. She also served and as a multi-term President and member for more than sixty-six years of the Pandora Study Club. Much as she loved her community in Texas, Audrey also loved to travel. She and Jim had many adventures on the road over the years, driving to visit national parks, friends and family in New Mexico, Deloney family reunions in Alabama, and one epic drive all the way to Alaska and back. Age could hardly slow her down. At 88, she blew the park rangers on the National Mall away, doing circles around the other visitors on a two-mile walking tour of the monuments. At 93, she spent part of her summer vacation on her hands and knees at a Washington, D.C. community garden with her great-granddaughters, showing them how to weed their plot. With the help of her friend and devoted caregiver Tiffany Bolton, Audrey remained fiercely independent to the very end. She particularly enjoyed sharing her love of gardening and cooking with Tiffany, and visits from friends and family members to the farm. Just last month, she taught her 8-year-old great-granddaughter how to use a sewing machine and how to back the golf cart into the garage all by herself. Throughout her life, Audrey was sustained by a remarkable and inspiring sense of gratitude for her blessings, even in the most difficult of times, and faith in God. That faith brought her and her family peace in her final days, as she spoke of her eagerness to reunite with Jim and her late son, Jimmy, in Heaven, and her hope to see the rest of us there in due time. Audrey was preceded in death by her parents, Oscar and Luna Deloney; her brothers, Lonnie, Virgil, James, Dan, Hank and John Deloney; her sisters Ruth Rosser and Ethel Snellgrove; her husband, James F. Terrell; and her son, James O. Terrell. She is survived by her younger brothers Leslie and Wyatt Deloney; her daughter, Rebecca Slater and husband Larry; her granddaughter, Fleming Terrell and husband Michael; two great-granddaughters; and many beloved nieces and nephews. The family wishes to extend its deepest gratitude to Dr. Downie, the ICU nurses and staff at Titus Regional Medical Center, who took excellent and compassionate care of Audrey over the past week. Visitation will be at noon on Friday, March 3, at the First Baptist Church in Daingerfield, followed by a funeral service at 1:00 p.m., also at First Baptist, and burial at Spring Hill Cemetery near Rocky Branch. Services are entrusted to Horn-Nail-Haggard Funeral Home of Daingerfield. In lieu of flowers, donations in Audrey’s memory may be made to the Pandora Study Club in care of Mrs. Martha Ridenour (903-645-2546) at P.O. Box 376, Daingerfield, TX 75638, for their scholarship fund; or to the charity of your choice.