Minister Curtis McDaniel Sr. of Fort Payne, Alabama, entered into God’s kingdom on August 17, 2025. Born on November 1, 1944, in Remlap, Alabama, he was the last of 23 children born to the late Charlie and Leola (Atchinson) McDaniel. The last of his siblings to be called home, he leaves behind a legacy as the devoted father of thirteen and a faithful servant of God.
From his earliest days, his life was marked by the hand of God. He would often testify of how the Lord healed him from polio as a boy, during his stay in Tuskegee. That miracle, and many more that followed, shaped his conviction that “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord” (Psalm 118:17). His very life was a testimony — not of what man can accomplish, but of what God can do.
Brother McDaniel often said he wanted to “be about my Father’s business.” And that he was. He served faithfully as a chaplain in an Alabama prison, bringing light into places many had forgotten. He traveled the United States and to Canada on missionary journeys, where he reached Indigenous reserves with the gospel and later founded the church Jesus New Covenant Outreach for Souls. He pastored the broken, counseled the lost, and gave troubled youth a reason to hope. When he wasn’t spreading God’s word, he was active in his community wherever God sent him rather it was working with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference or fighting for people’s rights as a representative of Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority.
He joins his son, Curtis McDaniel Jr., and his beloved wife, Evelyn Sue McDaniel, in the presence of the Lord. He is survived by children, Florence Stallworth, Annette Brown (Bishop J.W. Brown), Dylan Hurt, Natezhun McDaniel, Christopher McDaniel, Shauntay McDaniel, Joshua McDaniel (Andrea Squire), Aaron McDaniel, Matthew McDaniel (Melissa McDaniel), Mark McDaniel (Taylor McDaniel), Catrice Presley, and Lisa David; along with a host of grandchildren, great grandchildren, family, and friends who will carry his legacy forward.
Funeral services will be at 12 noon, Saturday, August 30, 2025, at the Wills Valley Community Church with Rev. Denny Mashburn officiating. Burial will follow in the Glenwood Cemetery.
The family will receive friends on Friday evening from 4 p.m. until 7 p.m. at Wilson Funeral Home.
But Curtis would not have left us without a word of urgency. He would remind us of Christ’s warning: “Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown” (Revelation 3:11). His life, his voice, his testimony all points to this truth: the time is short, and eternity is long.
Today we honor a man who lived not for himself, but for God. His race is finished, his faith kept, and his crown awaits. May we follow the same path of faith and may his final message — a message of hope, salvation, and readiness — live on in us all.
