Daryl A. Willard (Seymour)'s Obituary
Daryl A. Willard was born September 26, 1940, in Maryville, Missouri, to Ellsworth Clair and Emma Anna (Puckett) Willard. He departed this life at the age of eighty on April 18, 2021, while at Research Medical Center in Kansas City, Missouri.
In 1958, he graduated from Grandview High School in Grandview, Missouri, where he excelled at sports. Daryl was a natural athlete and sports enthusiast. He enjoyed many, but his passion was baseball. As a left-handed pitcher, he was asked to try out for the professional baseball team, The Kansas City Athletics (now the Kansas City Royals). He loved playing softball with the church league and played well into his 60s. He was an avid fisherman and loved spending time with his sons and grandsons. He was a practical joker and thrived on having fun and joking around. After school, he began the skilled trade of operating printing presses. He worked as a printer from 1958 until 2000, when he retired. Daryl married Shirley Wanstreet in 1961, and together they had two children, Tammy, and Timothy. He was a dedicated father and family was especially important to him. Daryl’s strong faith led him to ministry. He became an ordained minister and served as a Youth Pastor, Senior Pastor and Youth Director from 1965 until 1987, and continued ministering in the local churches that he attended. It was in 1991 that he met Leota Twylah (Heard) Owens and her daughter Christi. Daryl and Twylah were married February 1, 1992, and they continued to watch their families grow with grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Together they enjoyed twenty-seven years of marriage and dedication to The Lord until her passing on December 30, 2019. In addition to his parents and wife Twylah, Daryl was preceded in death by his sister Arleta Lou Osborn, and his brother Ronald Dean Willard; two nephews, Terry Osborn, and Lonnie Willard; and great-grandson Matthew Zimbelman. He is survived by three children, Tammy and Warren Aswell of Gardner, Kansas, Timothy and Ameka Willard of Greenwood, Missouri, and Christi and Paul Rogers, Jr. of Krebs, Oklahoma; five grandchildren, Nathan and Samantha Aswell, Jonathan and Sierra Aswell, Micah and Maria Willard, Jordan P. and Jordan D. Rogers, and Kasey and Zachary Zimbelman; eight great-grandchildren, Austin, Evalynn, Amiyah, Eve, Malachi, Everly, Jada, and Jordan; his brother Dennis and Barbara Willard of St. Louis, Missouri; Shirley (Wanstreet) Willard of Grandview, Missouri; and several nieces and nephews and extended family.
Visitation is Friday, April 23, 2021, from 11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m., with funeral service directly following at 12:30 p.m., at Holman-Howe Funeral Home in Seymour, Missouri. Burial will follow at Gentry Cemetery in Diggins, Missouri.
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