Tiny Merel McClain

Tiny Merel McClain (nee Davis) passed from this life to her eternal home on October 17, 2018 in Carrollton, Texas, with her family by her bedside. Tiny was born on March 28, 1939, to Claude Haskel Davis and Minnie Francis Davis (nee Dunham) of Chicota, Texas. She was the fifth child of the family and was blessed with eight sisters and two brothers.

Tiny grew up in the Chicota, Texas, area of Northeast Texas where she graduated from Chicota High School in 1957. She excelled in basketball and developed a “sky hook shot” that was second only to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and which she used to her advantage, time and time again, against her six foot tall sons (and their supremely over-confident friends). Word around town was that you never, ever, challenged her to a game of HORSE! Tiny was also an avid bowler during the middle of her life with several trophies to show her accomplishments, an accomplished baseball and softball player who was always up to play catch with her sons, daughter, and grandchildren (usually barehanded!!!), and, according to her sons and daughter, was disturbingly accurate with a house shoe.

Friends and family members recall her witty sense of humor, her funny giggle, and her wonderful smile. Many of her nieces and nephews remember her entertaining them (usually during the adults’ poker games) with stories about “purple people eaters” and the like. Her siblings also remember that Tiny loved playing “Mumbley Peg” with her father and taking care of her pet squirrel, “Frisky.” She could bring her kids to stitches when she gave funny voices to the family pets and was not averse (even at 40 years of age) to strolling into the yard to do cart wheels for her kids’ amusement!

Tiny was very small at her birth at the family home in Chicota (which may explain her name) and, being the fighter she was, survived to marry the love of her life, Raymond Lee McClain, and share a wonderful marriage for over 60 years. She was a devoted Mother, Grandmother, and Great- Grandmother and an example of a true Matriarch that held the family together through thick and thin. Tiny was the essence of a military wife serving with Raymond for 20 years on three continents, a stylish and classy woman known for her kindness and for being a sweet and loving person to all, and a supremely talented artist who loved the works of Thomas Kincaid and every “happy little tree” that Bob Ross ever painted. She loved to spend the entire day away shopping with her daughter (usually at any available mall and especially in Red River, New Mexico) or watching HSN over and over again … on an infinite loop. After working as a telephone operator for over 40 years, she had earned every bit of relaxation she could get.

Tiny was preceded in death by her father, Claude Haskell Davis; her mother, Minnie Francis Davis (nee Dunham); her sisters, Dorothy Faye Dawes, Evelyn Jo Ann Davis, and Claudean Massey; her brother, Kenneth Lee Davis; and her son, Ray Lynn McClain.

Her legacy and memory will live on through her husband, Raymond Lee McClain, of The Colony, Texas; her siblings, Leroy Dwayne Davis of Redwood Falls, Minnesota, Mary Francis Minter of Garland, Texas, Lou Etta Velasquez of Nocona Hills, Texas, Charlene Ann Harris of Nocona Hills, Texas, Marie Coffee of Carrollton, Texas, and Linda Kay Perkins of Krugerville, Texas; her children, Jerry Ray McClain of McKinney, Texas, Janice McClain Jacobs of The Colony, Texas, and Alexander Scott McClain of The Colony, Texas; her grandchildren, Josephine Alexis McClain, Joshua McClain Jacobs, Kristal McClain Jacobs, Taylor Nicole McClain, and Rebecca Elise McClain; and her great-grandson, Landon McClain Jacobs.

Tiny was loved while she was with us here on earth, will continue to be loved through time and all eternity, and will be sorely missed by all those who had the great fortune of crossing her angelic path.