Douglas Wayne Tallant

October 06, 1949 to December 11, 2015

Douglas W. Tallant was born on October 6, 1949 to Orgus D. and Bernice F. Tallant. Douglas shared this birthday with his mother, Bernie. Douglas had an older brother Richard (Dick) and an older sister Char. They lived and grew up in a small house in Beverly Park.

Douglas attended Beverly Park Elementary, Puget Sound Junior High and then Evergreen High School. He graduated in 1968. He was working at Dukes Transmission in Renton for his father during and after high school. He also attended Highline Community College and took accounting classes. He always loved cars and the faster the better. During high school he drove his mother’s 1962 Falcon station wagon. Many “street” races proved that the station wagon was not to be taken for granted. Douglas drag raced his cars at Puyallup and at SIR whenever possible.

On June 2, 1973 Douglas married Karen Lynn Luther. They had two children Dewey and Charice . Doug loved being a father and he would recall the trips to Disneyland and how he loved taking the family there. He even set aside his car racing for several years to take the children all over the western US and Canada to compete at BMX bicycle racing. Charice was a fierce competitor and won many trophies. When the kids got older and began losing interest in the bicycle racing, he went back to car racing. He got a 1968 Ford Torino from his dad and it eventually replaced the Falcon as the race car.

During all of this time Douglas worked with his father O.D. (Duke) at the Transmission shop in Renton. In 1990 Doug and Karen took over the business. Duke’s Transmission eventually moved to 1st Avenue in Burien where it remained until it closed at the end of 2014.

Still every chance there was Doug, with Karen and Dewey raced mainly at the Bremerton raceway. Doug won many championships and trophies. He loved being at the track racing with his son and had many friends there.

In November of 2012 Douglas married Amy Jo Slater. The couple lived in Ravensdale. Douglas continued to drag race at the Bremerton raceway. He also loved to bring his mother out to the house so everyone could sit on the deck and watch the elk herds go through the property. His favorite chore was mowing the 2 acres of grass on the riding lawn mower. He probably broke the land speed record for mowing 2 acres. He just couldn’t stop that need for speed.

In March 2015 Douglas had a heart attack while he and Amy were at the Muckelshoot Casino. He had 2 stents placed in his heart and it seemed to improve his health a lot. After recovering from that he often complained of his hip and left side hurting. In July he had surgery and they found he had colon cancer. There was no evidence of any other cancer but it quickly returned. He had 6 hospital stays but could never rally and get stronger. On December 11, 2015 with his wife Amy, sister Char, mother and close friend Clancy by his bedside he passed away. He was 66 years old.