Donald "Donnie" Alfred Henderson, Jr.
Donnie -
Friday, September 12, 2014 my older brother, Donnie Alfred Henderson, Jr., died. He was born on March 9, 1952. He truly loved airplanes, Barney Fife and Andy Griffith and ‘Tony the Tiger’.
He enjoyed 100 piece puzzles and was pretty fast putting them together. He always looked dapper in a hat. He was especially tickled when he got to say "Good, Great, Amen" at dinner.
He was born with Mental Retardation and never developed mentally past a 2-3 year old. As a child he developed a brain clot that paralyzed the right side of his body.
He was mobile until his early 20’s, but eventually had to use a wheel chair. But he still had a great enjoyment of life.
Monday afternoon in Oak Ridge there will be visitation from 11:30am to 1:30pm at Kern Memorial United Methodist Church, then a funeral service from 1:30pm at Kern,
followed by burial at 3pm at Oak Ridge Memorial Park.
I will miss him.
Emily's Eulogy of Donnie -
We are all so sad today, but this is really a chance to celebrate a very unique life. A life most would say was limited but my mom made sure it was a life that was as full as she could make it.
Full of lots of opportunities that many would think he couldn’t really enjoy. But enjoy he did. My first memory of Donnie was him using a record player.
Something he really enjoyed doing. He would spend hours playing the same ones. When he got older a record player couldn’t be found so he learned to use a CD player.
Donnie also loved to watch Bonanza and Gunsmoke. I always felt deep down he liked it for the same reasons as I did - to ride a horse and feel free to live off the land and take care of yourself.
Get Smart was another favorite of his. That and Laugh In had him cracking up all the time. He had a real sense of humor. But the show to beat all shows was Hee Haw. Donnie absolutely loved that one.
He was always laughing about it as if there was an inside joke that only he knew. Donnie was so enthusiastic in wanting to those around him to also laugh about whatever he found so amusing.
He would seek out your eyes as if he was saying “Do you see? See how funny this is?”.
Donnie’s enthusiasm for life is what he has shown to me is important. Listening to all those songs over and over as if he had never heard them before and living each day
as if it was all new is not a bad way to live.
Now Donnie is free.
Free to ride all the horses in heaven and maybe to do a little fishing with my daddy.
Good. Great. Amen
To view all the photos of the "Life of Donnie"
or
Download a PowerPoint slide show of the "Life of Donnie" (contact Alan for a copy)
