JOHN LLOYD DAY II

JOHN LLOYD DAY II A Celebration of Life service for John Lloyd Day II will be held at 11:00 am Saturday January 3, 2026, in the Craddock Memorial Chapel. Inurnment will be in the Liberty Cemetery, Sherwood Shores, Texas with Military Honors provided by the United Stated Air Force Honor Guard. Honorary pallbearers will be Joshua Cooper, Greg Matchen, Grant Matchen, Gary Don Hall, Jason Hall, Larry Hall, Chad Coleman, Kevin Martin. The family will host a visitation on Friday evening, January 2, 2026 at Craddock Funeral Home from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm. John was born Saturday September 13, 1952, in Morgantown, West Virginia to Nathan Lavern and Norma Jo (Dewitt) Day and died Saturday December 13, 2025, in Denison, Texas at the age of 73 years and 3 months. John is survived by Sandy Coleman Matchen-Day, his beloved wife, sisters, Carolyn Cooper and Nancy Day, Morgantown, West Virginia, nephew Joshua Cooper and Mabel, their children Andrea and Noah, of California, Maryland, stepson, Greg Matchen and wife, Becky, grandson Grant Matchen, granddaughter, Delaney Matchen, all of Ardmore, Oklahoma, sister in law, Kay Ashford of Mannsville, Oklahoma plus many other nephews and nieces who all loved Uncle John so deeply as well as many cousins and other family. John was preceded in death by his father, Nathan Day, and his mother Norma Day, grandparents, uncles, aunts, brothers in law as well as other family members. John grew up in Morgantown, West Virginia where he had a great love for the mountains, streams, and all the beauty found there as well as the West Virginia Mountaineers! John was an overcomer from a very young age. He had a difficult childhood losing his much-loved father at the age of 13, which affected him greatly during those early years. His mother insisted that John and both his sisters get a good education. After graduating high school, he attended Fairmont Jr College where he noticed the older men in his classes he admired the most were the ones with a military background. He then decided to leave his hometown and joined the United States Air Force to serve his country from 1971-1975 where he served in Okinawa as a Radar Operator. He also served again in the Air National Guard from 1992-1995 and was stationed in Wichita Falls, Texas studying Civil Engineering the summer of 1993 where John and his wife, Sandy, met. That fateful Friday of Labor Day weekend 1993 when they both met the love of their life at the Cheyenne Cattle Co changed both of their lives forever. As she picked him out of the crowd, he came up to their table and asked her to dance and as they say, the rest is history. Sandy said she was supposed to have gone to New Orleans that weekend, but her friend couldn't go. Sandy told her friend it was ok that something better would happen, and it certainly did! After he completed his college degree, John then went to work at IRS in Baltimore, Maryland, Richmond, Virgina and eventually transferred to Dallas until he and Sandy married February 3, 1996, and he moved to Ardmore, Oklahoma where they started their real estate investment business together. While in the military John continued his college degree and began to see in his opinion that the people who did the best in business were the ones with accounting backgrounds. He switched his major and graduated from East Carolina University with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration in 1984 primarily using his VA educational assistance and working a variety of jobs until he completed and received his degree. John thought nothing of working hard and diligently for what he wanted to accomplish, which included a good education. John found that he loved learning and school and was asked to teach some college classes himself along the way. He also loved the military and said that was one of his best choices he ever made as a young man with no father figure still in his life. He mentioned to his wife numerous times that the military and getting a higher education kept him from becoming a "bum" and that it had been very good for him to see more of the world. Once John made a commitment to anything...whether it was the military, college, marriage, family including extended family, making a home, his and Sandy's business and employees, he gave it his all. As Stepfather to Greg, and Papa John to Grant and Delaney they were loved and treated as his own. He was always in agreement with Sandy to help provide for her family at any point a real need arose, including a perfect car for his much-loved mother-in-law, and loved all of Sandy's family as his own. John was very committed to his own family as well and went back to West Virginia many times whenever the need was there. In the earlier years of their marriage, happy times and memories were made by John and Sandy during their numerous trips driving back home to visit his mom in the home his parents built that he grew up in as well as his sisters. During the last eight years or so John included in his passions finding a Camaro similar to the one he had in his younger years, a 1973 Z-28. He and Sandy spent many a weekend and vacations going to car shows which included "Cruisin the Coast" in Biloxi, MS area where he was stationed in the Air Force in his younger years searching for the perfect car and making beautiful memories together. John found his car approximately two years ago, a 1970 silver Z-28 which he spent many hours on lovingly restoring, an already very nice car he was diligent in taking to an even higher level of restoration. He also found another Camaro recently, a black 1969 he was finishing having restored which had needed so much additional work it caused Sandy to buy him a T-shirt that said "No, my car isn't finished yet"! John and Sandy also loved the beach and in recent years began traveling to beautiful destinations outside the US and had such a great time doing so and meeting so many wonderful people. John was the best at organizing travel plans, getting all the details done that it takes to travel, as effortlessly as possible. John was extremely generous, disciplined, organized, meticulous and always had a goal in mind up until his final days. John was always thankful and expressed his appreciation to people for what they did for him. He was very humble, thinking of others first donating money and time to organizations he believed in. Sandy says she has been told many times over the years what a good man he was. Those who worked with him, including his wife, knew he had very good boundaries and that he wanted things done a certain way so that he could say "he didn't have to do it again" anytime soon!! He loved woodworking and thought of it as therapy. He built an amazingly detailed and beautiful very large curved desk pretty much all by himself for The Lord's Church several years ago, as well as many other items such as checker board with checkers, many games for our family gatherings such as gutter ball, ladder golf, Jenga, and beautiful wooden cross for Sandy, picture frames, restored and built furniture, and built a bridge across their small creek area. He could do pretty much anything. John also meticulously restored 90% of their current home that was extremely dated requiring a major renovation both outside and inside when they purchased it twenty-one years ago. John was a deeply spiritual man who loved God and always strove to be the best he could be. He was saved in his early 20s when a professor in one of his college classes gave each student a New Testament called the Good News to read as an assignment. That helped him to overcome so much he said of what had been burdening him since his earlier years and began a work in him that continued for his lifetime here on earth. John was always in full agreement with tithing to their church and always went with Sandy to church listening intently to hear ways to live his life in a closer way to how he thought God wanted him to live. He always said the Bible was mostly about relationships and that the answers to our life issues and questions could be found there. John smoked for many years finally stopping for good in 2017 with God's help and nicotine patches because he wanted to be baptized and didn't think it was the right thing for him to do to continue smoking. At one-point years ago, The Lord's Church was in need of another van to pick people up for church. John drove hours away to pick up the van he found and purchased. It is still being used to this day. John's choice of music was eclectic, which included jazz but much of it was from his and Sandy's era when music was at its best, they would tell each other, which was the 60s, 70s and 80s. Pretty much any time they traveled there was music playing in the car including Christian artists as they drove from one destination to another enjoying each other's company. They talked occasionally about how hardheaded they both were and could be, but at least their relationship was never boring!! Like most couples they had their ups and downs but worked through their issues together, coming out stronger on the other side. As the years passed and as they neared their 30th Anniversary coming up on February 3 2026, they both realized more and more how Blessed they had been to have found each other in September of 1993, truly a beautiful love story. They both realized it was only because God saw them both, trusting they would meet their special person they were longing for in His Timing which He caused to happen in September 1993. Yes, John was truly an Overcomer and rose above all, a fighter, a brave warrior even with the cancer diagnosis he was given back in October 2024. He did everything he could to defeat it with his devoted wife, Sandy, by his side. He did standard of care cancer treatment here in US which eventually tore his body down plus alternative treatment in a beautiful small hospital in Tiajuana Mexico called Oasis of Hope which helped him greatly, but sadly the cancer was too far advanced. Their first trip there was in August 2025, the second trip right before Thanksgiving. He met and made many friends there, some of whom had seen their lives extended years or their family or friend's lives extended, giving John and Sandy much hope. John was looking forward to going back in February to their little piece of Heaven in Mexico. However, instead God has given him true health, energy, his youth, and total Peace in our forever home, Heaven, where we will all be together again one day, where John is again doing the things, he loved to do unburdened by anything. His sister, Carolyn, said the encouraging and beautiful words that came to her when John left us, were "Well done, thy good and faithful servant". John's sister-in-law, Kay Ashford, said about him recently that "John was so kind, genuine, honest, a true gentleman, an honor to know him, and everyone in our family loved him". Words cannot express how much John will be missed by his wife, family, friends and acquaintances. He was greatly loved by all who really knew him, and he definitely returned the love to those blessed enough to be a part of his life. The family requests that memorial contributions in honor of John can be made to Oasis of Hope Hospital, Paseo Playas de Tijuana 19, Tijuana Baja California, Mexico, 22504 To send a flower arrangement in memory of John Lloyd Day II, please click here to visit our sympathy store. To plant Memorial Trees in memory of John Lloyd Day II, please click here to visit our sympathy store.