Brian Edwards Yandell

Brian Edwards ("Skip") Yandell of Fayetteville, Ark. died peacefully in his sleep of heart failure, surrounded by the love of friends and family on Thursday, December 24, 2015 at the age of 75. Brian was born July 9, 1940 to Huell and Wanda (Edwards) Yandell, at the home of his maternal grandparents Georgia (Gage) and Dewey Edwards in Coal Hill Arkansas. All his life Brian told fascinating stories of a childhood spent in rural Arkansas: of healing through his great-grandmother's herbal medicine, of taming skunks for pets, of a mother and grandmothers who daily gathered wild plants for dinner, of hunting in local woods, or of helping his father farm and build houses. Though Brian worked most of his adult life in offices and lived first in the city of Houston Texas and then in the suburbs of Fayetteville Arkansas, his hobbies and leisure time most often took him back to the woods, and he considered himself a rural person at heart. In 1949 Brian's family moved to Highlands Texas to live near family and for jobs at the Humble (later Exxon) oil refinery there. In Highlands Brian grew up surrounded by uncles, aunts, and cousins. Brian graduated from Robert E. Lee High School in 1958, then enlisted in the U.S. Navy where he served on the U.S.S. Intrepid aircraft carrier, defended Guantanamo Bay during the Cuban Revolution, and travelled the world from North Africa to Europe, from the Middle East to the south Pacific, and back again. Upon his return he put himself through Lee Junior College and the University of Houston. After college Brian found work as a bank branch manager at Gibraltar Savings in Houston. In 1958 Brian went on a double date with his cousin, but after laughing with his cousin's blind date Bobby Ehrlich all evening, became good friends with the woman he would eventually marry. Brain and Bobby were married in 1965 and moved to Fayetteville because Brian always considered Northwest Arkansas his home. Their daughter Kay Ann Yandell was born in 1968; their son Jay Adam Yandell was born in 1972. Brian worked for McNair and Associates Insurance Company in Fayetteville from 1967 until his retirement in 2009. Many will remember him as their insurance agent, as the man they called in a crisis and who helped them after a car wreck or fire. Brian found a career in sales difficult because salesmen face so much rejection; at the same time, the joy he took in helping people became a defining aspect of his identity. His wife Bobby always said that Brian provided his family everything they needed, and then some. He funded his wife's college, then graduate school at the University of Arkansas, allowing her career as a public school teacher; he sent his children to their schools of choice, and kept them in houses and cars in ways that tremendously helped them as they established their own families. He made sure Bobby got her dream house in Fayetteville, and lived there with her until both their deaths. Brian loved to travel and explore the land around him. He often traveled with friends to Iowa, the west coast, or Texas to fish or hunt. He took his wife, children, and grandchildren around the U.S. and the world, to too many other places to name, on journeys that leave them some of their lives' most precious memories. Brian could build or fix almost anything. He once built his own scuba respirator and kayak. Another time he sewed himself a down sleeping bag and backpack. He built an addition onto his family's home, a treehouse for his children in the backyard, and a clubhouse in which his grandchildren still play. As hobbies he rebuilt various houses and restored American cars, usually from the 1930s and 1940s, and we remember him most often sitting in his chair, building remote control model airplanes, refashioning an engine part, or learning to play the concertina. Brian loved American music from the 1950s. He loved to fish and hunt, to explore and build, to read and learn to the end of his life. He didn't like housecats, pizza, or watching films in a cinema. He habitually roamed museums and battlefields with friends and family, and never passed up a roadside historical marker. He was a gifted storyteller. Most importantly, he dedicated his life to his family as a husband and a father; his many longstanding friendships attest as well to the depth of his commitments to the people he considered his own. Ours will not be the same world without him. Brian is preceded in death by his parents, Huell Edwin Yandell and Wanda Christine (Edwards) Yandell, by his sister Sharon Edwina (Yandell) Knoblaugh, and by his wife Bobby Jean (Ehrlich) Yandell. He is survived by a daughter, Kay Ann Yandell, her husband Sean Teuton, and their children Diana, Xavier, and Aurelio Yandell-Teuton of Fayetteville Arkansas; Brian leaves a son, Jay Adam Yandell, his wife Brenda (Teague) Yandell, and their children Tucker and Preston Yandell of Fayetteville Arkansas. A graveside service arranged through Moore's Funeral Chapel, (479) 442-7314, will be held in Brian's honor at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, January 9, 2016 at Fairview Memorial Gardens, 1728 E. Mission Boulevard, Fayetteville, Ark. 72703, (479) 521-8701. This graveside service will be followed by a memorial service and potluck at Zion Christian Union Church, 4984 W. Wedington Drive, Fayetteville, Ark. 72704, (479) 442-3583. Family and friends are welcome at both events. Memorials may be sent to Moore's Funeral Home; in lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the National Cancer Society.