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Charles Donald English passed away on July 20, 2022 at the age of 67.
Donnie English was born into a military family at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. His family moved to Lakeland in 1964 when Donnie was nine. He became instant friends with neighborhood kids. His favorite days were spent bike riding (which included riding off docks into lakes), and playing football and baseball in neighborhood lots. He worked for the City of Lakeland for 36 years. Over those years his grounds maintenance work area included Lake Morton and the downtown area, ball fields at Peterson Park and Southwest Park, and the Lakeland Center grounds. He also worked at Lake Parker Park where he planted many of its beautiful forest of trees. He was proud to have had, for a number of years, a retention pond near Southwest that had a sign designating it as Little Lake Donnie.
Over the years during spare time, Donnie enjoyed playing softball and volleyball. He especially liked bike riding Polk County’s backroads on breakfast rides with his friends in the bike club. He was a car enthusiast and read the print off every car magazine he bought. He was quick to spot exotic cars on the road, and could identify most cars in movies and TV shows. Donnie enjoyed all kinds of music including rock, jazz, classical, and blues. He often returned to the music of John Michael Talbot with songs such as this (see lyrics below): https://youtu.be/D2X11zZuvDw
Donnie had a show-stopper sense of humor where he would drop a comment into a conversation that would crack everyone up. He also had a memory bank of songs, parts of which he would sing based on snippets of conversation. He enjoyed reading about history and had love/hate relationships with playing his trumpet and following current events.
Donnie loved his son, Will, who was a joy and blessing to him every day. He loved his family well, his wife Jaynie Garnett English, his daughter-in-law Monica Armes English, his sisters Sandy English Razabdouski and Debbie English Regan (Kevin), and his nephew Michael Razabdouski. He continued to fight through issues of long-term heart failure in order to enjoy more time with them. He now rejoices in being with his parents, Charles and Doris English, and brother-in-law, Clarence Razabdouski, in heaven.
He leaves his family waiting for the day when they can again enjoy his sly smile and unexpected turn of humor. Condolences may be sent to the family at Gentry-Morrison Funeral Homes.
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