Roy Danuser

1918 - 2015

Roy Danuser, 97

Our beloved father, grandfather, brother, father-in-law and dear friend Roy E. Danuser died peacefully in Mountain Home on June 5, 2015, at the age of 97. He was born to Caroline Mae (Jennings) Danuser and Roy Danuser in Kansas City, Missouri, on May 10, 1918. The family moved to Hot Springs, Arkansas, where he spent his youth helping his parents with the Jersey dairy started by his grandmother. As a senior in high school, he and his debate partner were national debate champions. He worked his way through the University of Arkansas by digging ditches, working in the firehouse, and learning to type. In 1942, after graduation from the University of Arkansas law school, he married the love of his life, Delphia Lucille Morrison, the beautiful secretary in a judge's office in Russellville. During World War II he served in the Army Air Corps and was a "hump pilot," flying missions over the Himalayas in India, Burma, and China.

After the war he returned to Malvern, Arkansas, to practice law and was appointed Circuit Judge for Hot Springs County by Governor Sid McMath. In this capacity he became highly regarded for his courage and fairness in very high-profile cases. Among other things, he issued an order making it necessary for a jury panel to include an African American member when an African American was being tried.

Roy Danuser practiced law and had title companies in Benton and Little Rock. In 1954 he took over the law practice of his lifelong college friend Ernie E. Wright, who had been elected Circuit Judge in Mountain Home. He practiced law in Mountain Home until last year, when he retired as the oldest practicing lawyer in Arkansas at the age of 96. He was honored to represent large corporations and distinguished individuals, but his favorite clients were often the disadvantaged and downtrodden.

He served his community in many ways and was a respected and beloved civic leader, spearheading the effort for a community hospital in Bull Shoals and supporting the development of Baxter Regional Hospital. With his dear friends Rosemary and George Fisher he developed Mountain Village 1890, Bull Shoals Caverns, and Top of the Ozarks tower.

He was deeply devoted to his family, his friends, and his trout fishing, and he was widely known as a great story-teller. Many members of the Arkansas Bar Association were like an extended family to him. He often said that he lived in the most beautiful part of the country. His wife Delphia preceded him in death in 2006. He is survived by his sister, Anna Meredith (Jack) of Houston, nephew Roy Meredith (Kathy), nephew Rex Meredith, niece Nancy Seliger (Kel), daughters Nancy Jane Reed (Dwain), Mary Ann Looney (Doug), and Beverly D. Richardson (Peter), and six grandchildren: Christopher A. Reed (Katrina) and Emily Reed (Monika) of Mountain Home, Mark Looney (Dorothy) of Vietnam, Shannon Ulbrick (Fred) of Connecticut, Laura Elizabeth Doll and Elerina Aldamar of Oregon, and many great-grandchildren.

Funeral services will be 10:00 a.m. Thursday, June 11, 2015, at First United Methodist Church with Reverend Rodney Steele officiating. A visitation will be Wednesday from Noon until 9:00 p.m. with the family receiving friends from 6:00 - 8:00 p.m. at the funeral home. Interment will be in Baxter Memorial Gardens.

In lieu of flowers the family would appreciate a donation in his name to Mayo Clinic (200 First Street SW, Rochester, Minnesota 55905) and/or Hospice House of Mountain Home.

Arrangements are by Roller Funeral Home.

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