Robert 'Bob' Edgar Daugherty

Robert Bob Edgar Daugherty , 91, left this earth for his heavenly home on April 13, 2015. He had been a resident at Ussery-Roan Veterans home since November 2011. Services will be held at Rector Funeral Home on Thursday at 10:00 am during which The Patriot Guard Riders will stand in a flag line to honor him as a veteran. Private family burial will follow at Sayre-Doxey Cemetery in Sayre, Oklahoma. Bob was born and raised in Oklahoma into a farming family. He served in the U.S. Navy from December 1942 to November 1948 in the Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea, Leyte, Luzon, Iwo Jima and Okinawa, and survived the sinking of his ship, destroyer U.S.S. Bush, on April 6, 1945. He was honorably discharged with the rank of Radarman 1st Class. Following the military, he served over 20 years as a firefighter with the Civil Service at various Air Force Bases, the last Amarillo Air Force Base, and in his later years worked as an agent with Farmers Insurance and drove a school bus after he retired. He enjoyed gardening and reading, and will be remembered for many things, but most of all for his sacrificial service to God and his country. A decades-long dedicated member of Amarillo Bible Church, he was an elder and taught Bible classes. He began working with the Gideons in 1976 and served as Gideon Card Chairman until 2000. Ensuring the availability of free Scriptures became his passion and mission in life. He was a widower three times, and was preceded in death by Mary Lee Milner, Edna Mae Rakes and Irene Baughman, and a grandson, Michael Sterling. He is survived by children Edwin Rhea Rakes and wife Nancy, Melba Lea Bush and Vance Robert Daugherty; grandchildren Preston Rakes and wife Lisa, Lynda Wyatt, Sarah Pollard and husband Steve, Jeff Wyatt, Matthew Javier and wife Christine; 13 grandchildren; and three great-great grandchildren. Family will receive Friends from 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm Wednesday at the funeral home In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be given to the Gideon International PO Box 2304, Amarillo, TX 79015.