Rachel Wood McDaniel

RACHEL WOOD MCDANIEL, age 86, was born Oct. 19, 1930, in Tishomingo County, Miss., to the late Mary Musselman and Henry E. Wood Sr. She departed this life Jan. 6, 2017, at St. Vincent Infirmary Medical Center in Little Rock, Ark Rachel was a descendant of a strong pioneering family who migrated from Tishomingo County, Miss., and settled in North Little Rock, Ark. in 1937. She graduated from North Little Rock High School in 1948 and ASTC in 1951. Rachel and Maurice McDaniel married in 1951 while he was home on leave from the U.S. Navy. After Maurice graduated from pharmacy school in 1960, they lived in Jacksonville, Walnut Ridge, Conway and Fayetteville before returning home to North Little Rock. She taught elementary education in Jacksonville, Walnut Ridge and retired from the North Little Rock School District. She was a member of Central Baptist Church in NLR. Rachel was a woman of strength, compassion and integrity. Our lives are forever blessed by having her with us all these years. Besides her parents, Rachel was preceded in death by her husband, Maurice McDaniel; her brothers Henry E. Wood Jr. and Sidney Wood, and her son, Tim McDaniel. Rachel is survived by her brothers and their wives; Bob and Betty Wood and Bill and Linda Wood; her sister, Mary Ann and husband, Dan Littlefield; and her sister-in-law, Irma Wood. Rachel is survived by her sons; Jim McDaniel and wife, Barbara (Wahl), of North Little Rock; Philip McDaniel of Atlanta, Ga.; and daughter-in-law, Jennifer McDaniel of Maumelle. She is also survived by four grandchildren: Clay McDaniel of North Little Rock; Robin McDaniel Coe and her husband, Matt, of West Memphis; Ben McDaniel and Andrew McDaniel of North Little Rock; two step-grandchildren, Sophie Meyers and Max Meyers of Maumelle; and three great-grandchildren, Rachel, Mason and Wesley Elizabeth Coe of West Memphis and many nieces and nephews. A visitation will be held at Central Baptist Church, 5200 Fairway Avenue, North Little Rock, Monday, Jan. 9, at 1 p.m. with the funeral service at 2 p.m. Interment will follow the funeral service at Arkansas Memorial Gardens, North Little Rock, Ark. Memorials can be made to Central Baptist Church, North Little Rock, Ark. Online obituary at www.SmithFamilyCares.com.