John Darrell Oaks

John Darrell Oaks was born to Lola Mae Moon and Ira William Oaks as a Mother’s Day gift on May 10, 1936 at Methodist Hospital in Dallas, Texas. He grew up in Oak Cliff and attended Sunset High School. As he looked to the future he applied for an opportunity to work for Braniff Airlines and once on board, stayed with them until they stopped operating in the mid 1980's.

In the late 1950's Darrell met Dixie Ann on a blind date, the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, and married her a year later in 1960. While they lived in Irving, their first son Brett was born in August of 1963. They continued living there until Darrell accepted an opportunity to transfer with Braniff airlines to Corpus Christi, Texas in the fall of 1964. While in Corpus Christi their second son, Scott was born in July of 1966.

Over the years his hobbies included fishing on Padre Island, hunting, playing guitar, photography and wood carving. Even though he was in the airline industry he really enjoyed driving for vacations since he saw it as relaxing and moving at a slower pace. Darrell and Dixie liked traveling to visit their children and grandchildren and to various other places in the United States.

He made a career out of his passion for flying and traveling. Together with his imaginary friend “Scadoodi” they visited exotic places like Timbuktu, Madagascar, and Easter Island in search of adventures and on a quest of finding unique souvenirs to bring to Anna and Ben, his grandchildren. As a gifted storyteller, he would share with them the thrills of discovering these souvenirs such as when he was in Africa, he caught an egg thrown at him from an ostrich that was being chased by a zebra, that lost its stripes because it was running away so fast from a rhinoceros who was scared of the cheetah that was right behind him. Like him, his stories were legendary and he kept his audience of adults and children longing for more and was often asked to write a book. Darrell continued on in the airline business working with charter airlines where he traveled around the world more than ten times and visited over 100 countries.

His moral compass was his dedication to family and service to others. His openness and kindness allowed him, a Texan through and through, to adapt to Tere’s (his daughter in laws) Costa Rican “noisy” family, and from where he got his nickname “Tito” when Anna, his favorite granddaughter, was born. He was thrilled when his grandson Ben came along and proud that he would carry on the Oaks’ name and his legacy. He enjoyed teasing Saylor and Charly, his two great-granddaughters, and loved having them around. He thought the world of Aaron (Anna's husband), and enjoyed talking business with him.

In 2009 Darrell and Dixie moved from Corpus Christi back to the Dallas area to be around family and in 2010 celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.

In recent months Darrell's health slowly declined which led to him passing peacefully in his sleep on the morning of June 4.

Tito, you and your stories, will always be etched in our hearts. We will forever miss you and forever remember you.