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Life story

"Donald Vaughn Otey, Lt Col, U.S. Air Force Retired, age 89, of King George, Virginia died November 20th, 2024, from complications with kidney failure. Don was born in Salem Virginia, May 30, 1935, to parents, Ward and Ruth Otey.

Don was always ready to say how lucky he was to have found the love of his life Jo Ellen Spaur, married her in 1957, and proud to tell anyone and everyone of the years (67!) sharing a wonderful life with his best friend and sweetheart. They have three children, Donald Jr and wife Mary Ann, Robert and wife Gail, and Debra Clarke and husband Troy. They have 8 grandchildren, Joshua and wife Sarah, Brian, Nicholas, Ryan, Emily, Sean, Sarah, Kathryn and 5 great grandchildren, Emma, Bradley, Payton, Caroline, Maxwell. Don is also survived by brother and sister-in-law Kenneth and Janet Otey, sister-in-law Mary Otey and predeceased by younger
brother Michael.

Don earned his bachelor’s degree from Virginia Polytechnic Institute, in 1957 and was an officer in the Corps of Cadets. Later that year, he entered the Air Force to begin a 23-year distinguished career as a Communications Officer, holding command positions, with assignments including
Thule Air Base Greenland, Forbes Air Force Base Kansas, Langley AFB Virginia, and Hickam AFB and Wheeler Field in Hawaii, retiring in 1980 while assigned to the Defense
Communications Agency, in Washington D.C. He attended the Air Force Institute of Technology, earning an Electrical Engineering degree in 1970, and graduated Air War College,
Maxwell Air Force Base Alabama in 1977, consecutively earning an MBA from Auburn University. Upon retirement, he entered the private sector, further utilizing his communications, engineering and writing skills for the Nation’s defense and emergency management sectors, the
latter with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Don genuinely loved to write using real-life experiences and inspiration from family and good friends running the gamut of mystery, political intrigue, a bit of science fiction, and a closely prized, intensely researched novel, on the American Civil War which chronicled the lives of both a Confederate and Union soldier. Every book is fondly dedicated to family and friends, with one of the later ones reading… “This is for you, my dear Jo Ellen, and our three wonderful children
and their spouses. Family is everything. I sincerely hope our grandchildren and great grandchildren, who I dearly love, will also come to know me a little better through my writing.”

Family interment services will be held at Prospect Hill Cemetery. Front Royal Virginia."