David Oakes

David Allan Oakes of Rhome, Texas, was born April 27, 1968, in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania. He married Kelly Gann on July 30, 1988, in Little Rock, Arkansas, and for decades he built a life rooted in family and craftsmanship. A cabinet maker by trade, David took pride in work well done and in the quiet care of his home and those he loved.

Known to family and friends as a steady presence, David cherished his role as husband and father. He is survived by his wife, Kelly; daughter Alexzandra Isabelle Oakes; son William Wyatt Oakes; daughter Sophie Grace Oakes; his parents Allan and Susan Oakes; sister Heidi Heiston; brother Shawn Michael Oakes; and a circle of nieces, nephews, cousins and friends who remember his gentle reliability.

Funeral services were held August 24, 2017, at Hawkins Funeral Home in Boyd, with burial the following day at DFW National Cemetery. Those services reflected his family’s wish to honor his life with dignity and gratitude for the ordinary, essential things he contributed: steady hands, dependable work, and a deep commitment to his family.

Though the public record offers only a brief outline of his years, the facts that are known point to a life of care for home and family and a craft practiced with skill. David’s memory lives on in the people who loved him and in the pieces of work he left behind — quiet testaments to a life spent building and sustaining the people and places closest to him.