Robert Louis McDaniel

Robert Louis McDaniel 89, of Paynesville, died Tuesday, June 7, 2022, at his home in Paynesville.  A celebration of life will be held at 11:00 am on Tuesday, July 5, 2022, at Johnson Funeral Home in Paynesville.  A visitation will be held one hour prior to the service.  

Robert was born in Duncan Arizona in 1932. His mother, Mary Wallace Pardee McDaniel, and father, Floyd McDaniel also bore three sisters: Margie Ballard, Ruth Pennington (Robert’s twin sister), and Valeria White. Robert spent many childhood years in a hospital battling osteomyelitis and was cured around his 13th birthday.

Though the disease left him with limitations, those restrictions did not stop him from a life filled with adventures. From playing tennis at the University of Arizona to working for the forestry service in Montana, Robert took on every opportunity presented to him. Eventually, he spent years at Boeing in Seattle, Washington, and learned to fly. Robert married his first wife Anne during the early sixties and fathered his daughter Mary Allison DeLaurenti. Later on, Robert found his way to Grand Forks, North Dakota via his Cessna 180 airplane and met his second wife Katherine Francis Brodeur McDaniel. Their first date was a flight to Minneapolis for the Twins baseball game. Robert and Katherine married in 1970 and had 4 children, Matthew Floyd McDaniel, Mark Brodeur McDaniel (spouse Michelle Moody), Sarah Katherine McDaniel Daniel, and Monica Mary McDaniel Moore (spouse Connor Moore).

While Robert was in Grand Forks he ran for mayor, owned several successful businesses, became President of the North Dakota Jaycees, and cast an electoral vote for President Reagan in the 1980s. By late 1990 the McDaniel family moved from Grand Forks to Buffalo, MN, and eventually started a business of BlessingWell Gallery and Frame Shop in 2004. Robert is survived by his second wife and children and three grandchildren: Constance Katherine Antoinette Moore, Samantha Sarah Anne Moore, and Mary Amelia Daniel. Robert will be remembered as a strong, independent, perseverant consumer of knowledge who loved his children with unbridled enthusiasm. He will be missed.

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