Friends, it is with much sadness that I relay news of the death of ADS member, Roxane Daniel, of Camden AR, after a lengthy illness. Roxane had been an ADS member since 1992. ADS member, Char Roush said, “Roxane was instrumental in getting the Daffodil Festival in Camden, AR organized, and her daffodil and Japanese garden were always on display. She was a wonderful lady and friend to all of us!”
With much sorrow,
Jaydee Atkins Ager
Executive Director
The American Daffodil Society, Inc.
Thera Lou Adams of Camden, Arkansas and I visited Roxane at her home in Camden last spring. Roxane was a trooper, a spirited beautiful woman who loved life and daffodils. Her display gardens were so very lovely, thousands upon thousands of daffodil blooms in the Spring.
Many of us have enjoyed the Camden Daffodil Festival, one of the great springtime celebrations in our part of the country. We owe a great deal to Roxane Daniel and her husband Denis for their inspiration and hard work which made this possible. And we will all remember their beautiful garden, which they loved to share with visitors.Southern Region and the ADS hae lost a great lady.
I met Roxane only once, at the ADS convention in Saint Louis, in 2005. What a presence she had! She was quite the lady with a great sense of humor, and she loved her dafffodils. Cheers, Roxane, for a life well lived and enjoyed!
Roxane Daniel was more than the “Camden Daffodil Queen”. She took an interest in every person that visited her garden and worked like a juggernaut to make the festival bigger and better each year. I was taken under her wing on my first visit and it was like we had been friends for my lifetime. By showing her love for the “little yellow spring flowers” that were loved by our grandparents I remembered that it is not the judging of blooms and knowing the divisions that makes daffodilos a thing to love – it’s the people that come with them. She told me how opening her garden for tours to save the railroad station led to eighteen years of better and better festivals that helped every charity in her county. She loved the youngsters who demonstrated karate in her Japanese Garden and the elderly ladies who walked in the safety of her garden paths after church. Her second long struggle with breast cancer is over, but her memory will live on. I just finished my first ever 5K walk in her honor, but I can guarantee it won’t be my last!