Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Danny Shelburne has died

I'm very sorry to pass along the sad news that Danny Shelburne died yesterday at 4 PM about 2 days after suffering a massive heart attack. Danny's dad (now 89) and sisters Carolyn and Charlotte were at Danny's side as he passed away peacefully at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital soon after life support was removed. Carolyn writes: "It's been a long 2+ days and all your prayers and love have been appreciated."

Notes of remembrance are welcome at Carolyn's Facebook page. If you have a memory of Danny you want to share, and don't have access to Facebook, feel free to send it to me and I will post it for you.

As Carolyn has said many times, even before this recent tragedy, that Danny's most happiest years were those many summers (and a few winters too) at Frost Valley, where he was an LIT, JC, horsebarn staffer, maintenance guy and Adventure Trip leader. He loved Frost Valley completely. He was full of antics and sleights-of-hand, had an infectious devilish loud laugh, but when it was time to get serious and do the work, he was all in - strong as a bull, willing to pull more than his weight, all with a ready smile. I remember him in an emergency - he was the fastest to respond. I recall one afternoon when a young staffer (Spencer L.) was badly injured at the horsebarn; the intercom phone at the barn couldn't reach the nurse right away, so while were slower to respond Danny jumped on a horse and galloped off like a cowboy to the Health Center shouting "Git the nurse! Git the NURSE!!" - whereupon she was gotten and Spencer was immediately taken care of.

Even if you didn't know Danny Shelburne personally, you surely recognize a great Frost Valley spirit in the person described above. We all know a Frost Valley Danny. We all knew Danny. He's one of us, and in our memories of him - around a campfire after hours; making runs to Liberty for supplies for colleagues; digging ditches when an extra hand was needed; and laughing at the sheer pleasure of being in the mountains in the summertime - will always be with us, all of us.

Here is a link to the obituary: http://nrvnews.com/obituaries/shelburne-jr-harvey-daniel/#respond

In lieu of flowers, Carolyn asks that you make a donation in Danny's memory to Frost Valley:

http://frostvalley.org/ways-to-give/