Keith Dunavant

1941 - 2025

Keith Dunavant

September 11, 1941 - June 11, 2025

Azle, Texas - Otis Keith Dunavant, 83, passed away on June 11, 2025.

Visitation: 6 - 8 p.m. Wednesday, July 2, 2025, at Greenwood Funeral Home in Memorial Suites C and D, 3344 White Settlement Rd., Fort Worth, Texas 76107. Funeral Service: 11 a.m. Thursday, July 3, 2025, at Birchman Baptist Church, 9100 N Normandale St., Fort Worth, Texas 76116; followed by interment at Greenwood Memorial Park.

Keith was born in Fairfax, Oklahoma, but his parents moved quite a bit when he was a preschooler. His father was a welder building the pipeline to deliver oil from the oilfields to the refineries. The itinerant life came to an end when he was ready to start kindergarten. His parents settled in Corpus Christi, Texas, and that's where he spent all of his school years.

Keith graduated from W.B. Ray High School in Corpus Christi in 1959. He attended Del Mar Junior College for one year before transferring to The University of Texas in Austin. He studied to become a pharmacist and earned his BS in Pharmacy in January, 1965. He joined Kappa Psi, a professional fraternity for men in pharmacy school. He formed lifelong friendships there, and got together annually with some of his fraternity friends and their wives.

After college he went to Lubbock for a year, but then moved to Arlington, Texas, where he met his wife, Jane Dunavant. They raised their family in Fort Worth and moved to Azle in 1994, where they lived on Eagle Mountain Lake.

Keith worked at Baker Pharmacy in Arlington for 2 years before moving to Town and Country Drug where Alan Hamm was his employer. Keith later became a junior partner with Mr. Hamm where the chain grew to 14 locations, all in Tarrant County. Upon selling the chain to Eckerd's Drugs in the early 90's, Keith operated United Provider Services, a pharmacy benefit management company which was sold to a division of CVS in 2001. Keith served as the president of the UPS division to facilitate the seamless transition of the employees and clients before retiring in 2004.

In 1974, Keith was invited to membership in the Moslah Shrine Patrol, an organization that did a performance drill routine and won state and national championship competitions. The 32 men in the drill team became lifelong friends and trusted advisors of Keith and Jane. His other love and passion was golf. He was a 50 year member at Ridglea Country Club and joined because it had 2 courses that challenged different aspects of his game. He maintained a single digit handicap for much of his life and made several holes in one, but his greatest pride in golf was shooting his age 5 times.

Together with his wife Jane, they enjoyed traveling and exploring around the world, visiting 6 continents. In addition to enjoying international travel, they loved road trips whether visiting family or exploring the National Parks or other beautiful sites across the US. Because they lived on the lake, Keith and Jane enjoyed hosting various church groups, family, and friends and Keith especially liked boating and water craft. He delighted in throwing people off the rafts and speeding around on the jet skis.

Keith grew up going to church every Sunday and even served as a junior deacon as a teenager, however his personal relationship with the Lord started in 1974. He became a member of Birchman Baptist Church where he and Jane raised their daughters. Through the years he served as an usher and on the finance committee several times. He also volunteered at Corners of the Field, their church's food pantry. He wanted all of his friends to know that anyone can have a relationship with Jesus and be assured that they would spend eternity in heaven.

Keith was preceded by his parents, James Eulric and Mary Kathryn Dunavant; and daughter, Cynthia Gonzalez Wright.

He is survived by his wife, Jane Nichols Dunavant; daughter, Elisa Dunavant Burns; son-in-law, Joshua Wright; grandchildren, Matthew Dunavant and his wife, Rebekah Caye and their four children, Melanie Duncan and her husband, Trey and their two children, Chandler Burns and his fiancee, Eliza Jason, Joey Walker, Julio Gonzalez and his fiancee, Christina Fuentes, and Gabriel Gonzalez and his wife, Angela and their two children; sister, Janice Dunavant Weaver; and brother-in-law, Gary Weaver.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Birchman Baptist Church Music Ministry.