Doris Darnell

A Memorial Graveside Service celebrating the life of Doris Darnell, age 94, of Magnolia, Texas, and formerly of Lynch, Nebraska will be held in June of 2026 at Pleasant Hill Cemetery, south of Lynch. Doris passed away on Tuesday, June 24, 2025 at Beautiful Minds Care Home in Conroe, Texas. Local arrangements are entrusted to Biglin's Mortuary in Spencer. Doris Mae Carson was born in Santee, NE, on October 14, 1930. She was the third daughter of Clarence and Luella (Trudell) Carson. She graduated from Niobrara High School in 1948 and taught Kindergarten through fourth grade for three years in Santee. She moved to Omaha for a job as a secretary. There she met and married Ernest "Jude" Darnell in 1951. They had a daughter, Susan Kay. Doris became a homemaker which was good because Jude's job with the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad moved them around the country from Omaha to Cleveland to Detroit to Grand Rapids, Mi to Detroit, to Cincinnati to Detroit again and finally to Ft. Worth, TX, over the next 30 years. When Jude retired in 1985, they moved back to Lynch, NE, and remodeled the Darnell house on Adams St. In Lynch, her sisters, Cathy Matejcek, and Rebecca Whitney, lived in town, her mom and dad lived in Niobrara at that time and her brother, Bud, and sister-in-law Dee, in Yankton. It was nice to be close to family again. She became involved in the LCCY youth group at the United Methodist Church in Lynch, the Women's Auxiliary, the Lynch Hospital fund raisers, the blood mobiles, the library, and was active in helping with the annual rummage sale. She enjoyed cooking and serving for funerals, helping with events, making Groundhogs for the Lewis and Clark bicentennial, as well as hosting their two grandsons, Erik and Matt, each summer while school was out. In 2016, she decided to move to Magnolia, TX to be close to her daughter and family. Magnolia is a northern suburb of Houston so it was a very big transition for her from country living to big city living. But she handled it with her usual practical thinking and enjoyed the warm weather and year around flowers. She is survived by her daughter, Susan Hoyer and husband, Roger; her grandson, Matthew Hoyer of Portland, OR, her grandson, Erik Hoyer and his wife, Krystal, and two great grandkids, Piper, and Hudson, all of Cypress, TX; as well as her sister-in-law, Delora "Dee" Carson of Yankton; and many loving nieces and nephews and their families. Doris was preceded in death by her parents, Clarence and Luella Carson, her brother, Clarence (Bud) Carson, and her 4 sisters, Rebecca Whitney, Catherine Matejcek, Luanne Eberly and Carolyn Brinkman, as well as her brother in laws, Clarence Whitney, Frank Matejcek, Jay Eberly and Del Brinkman, and nephew, David Whitney.