Denny McDaniel was more than just a grocer

The Medical Lake community lost another notable name on Jan. 22 when Denny McDaniel passed away at the age of 74.

Better known probably by his first name - the title that he used for his grocery store along State Route 902 - McDaniel was not just a businessman, but one of the people the community gathered and turned to when there was a cause that needed a boost.

"If somebody's in trouble, we'll put the word out and something will happen (to help)," he said in a Nov. 11, 2016 interview.

McDaniel spoke to the immense generosity that always seems present in Medical Lake and pointed to the late Howard Jorgenson as a major example about the giving ways of the community.

But McDaniel was big in that area, too.

"It would be interesting to know the exact number of our students that Denny and Zane have employed over the years, too many to count I am sure," Medical Lake High School Principal Chris Spring wrote in an email.

They provided support for just about any community cause.

"The store always invited us to conduct auctions, car washes, candy sales, cookie sales and anything else that would possibly benefit our students and their activities," Spring said. "We are very thankful for Denny McDaniel and his contributions, he will certainly be missed." 

Arriving in town in 1995 from Odessa, Wash., McDaniel took over the former Lake City Thrift and operated downtown on Broad Street until he had the present store built in 2004. "The building's tired," McDaniel said of the location now being remodeled to house Sunwest Automotive Engines.

In the previous location, McDaniel explained that they struggled to get traffic from the people who worked at the nearby state institutions.

"It's worked out a lot better," McDaniel said last Veteran's Day of the present store.

Until Sam Walton's company put up a Walmart superstore in 2006 a few miles away in Airway Heights. That was about a 25 percent hit to his customer base, McDaniel said of a business he said profits between 20–25 percent, "If you're lucky, and that's not net, either."

It's been tough, but the business has survived in a place where a number of customers have an additional alternative, the base exchange, or "BX" at nearby Fairchild Air Force Base.

While McDaniel's passing might have been a shock to many, such was not the case with his son, and store manager, Zane McDaniel said.

"I saw him every day and knew how much he had been struggling," Zane McDaniel said. "You'd think he'd be down for the count and show up the next day for work," he added.

McDaniel said his father had a severe heart attack a couple of years ago. "The doctors told him his heart was not going to get any better, it's not going to be able to repair itself," he added.

But McDaniel made the best of his years, working primarily in the grocery business, his son said.

Denny McDaniel spent the years before he was a store owner working in places like Owen's IGA on Spokane's South Hill at 29th and Regal and at Food Mart Extra, which once shared space in the Sprague Avenue K-Mart.

When that store closed, Denny McDaniel went to work in Odessa. "The guy in Odessa said if you make some money for me for a couple of years I'll sell it to you," Zane McDaniel said.

Denny McDaniel was not always a grocer, his son said. "He had other jobs I'm sure he wished he would have kept, like a postal carrier," where he would have been retired many years ago. He also worked for the railroad.

Small town life had special significance to McDaniel, particularly for his family.

He and his wife, Kathy, would commute 35 miles one-way from the Spangle area that is home to the Liberty School District where Zane McDaniel graduated.

"That was always because they wanted us to go to a small school and live in a small town," Zane McDaniel said. "They didn't want us to live in Spokane."

Another part of McDaniel's legacy, his son said, was the part he played in getting the Blue Waters Bluegrass Music Festival going. "I thought he was crazy," Zane McDaniel said. "I was about 30 years old so it seemed like a silly idea to me at the time."

It's turned out to be quite a success as the 16th edition looms ahead this coming August.

McDaniel was also part of the group that started the Medical Lake charity, Friends For Children.

McDaniel is survived by his wife Kathy, four children and two step-children, two brothers, including a twin, as well as numerous grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Paul Delaney can be reached at pdelaney@cheneyfreepress.com.