Darell “Duff” Wayne Burns

Darell “Duff” Wayne Burns, 69, of Indianapolis, IN, died peacefully at home on February 22, 2023, after being diagnosed with stage four metastatic cancer.

He was born on June 21, 1953, to Robert and Verna Burns in Columbus, Indiana.

Duff graduated from Columbus High School in 1971. He then went on to Ball State University and graduated with a double major and minor. It was there that he met “a good-looking nursing student,” Sherry Lynn Wiedeman. They married on March 12, 1988. Together they had three children, Angela, Abigail, and Andrew.

He worked for Conrail Railroad for almost five years with his cousin, Scott Taskey, and Scott’s brother-in-law, Bill Allen, making for many hilarious stories while working in the Bridge Department. He went on to become a semi-truck driver at FedEx. Darell retired from FedEx in 2018 after 30 years. He was also an accomplished network marketer and enjoyed building multilevel marketing businesses. He often got his children involved with answering phones when they were young as “Burns & Associates.”

He was an avid gardener and loved growing enough tomatoes to share with everyone he saw in the summers. He was a member of the Gold Prospectors Association of America. He and his son, Andrew, even took two prospecting trips to Nome, Alaska. He also taught his grandsons to pan for gold and get gold flakes into a sniffer bottle. Duff enjoyed many weekend mornings at the Five Points Conservation Club for still board Turkey Shoots and the biscuits and gravy breakfast. He loved to fish, especially with his grandsons – baiting countless hooks with worms for them.

Darell is survived by his wife, Sherry Burns; daughters, Angie (Matt) McElroy and Abbie (Kolin) Kinder; son, Andrew Burns; three grandsons, Kolten Kinder, Kasen Kinder, and Avery McElroy; brother, Mark Burns.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Robert and Verna Burns; father-in-law, Bud Wiedeman; and brother-in-law, Dennis Bischoff.

Celebration of Life will be on April 15 at 2 p.m. at Faith United Church of Christ located at 4040 East Thompson Road, Indianapolis, Indiana. Arrangements were entrusted to Wilson St. Pierre Funeral Service & Crematory, Franklin Township Chapel.

His ashes will be divided and spread between “down home” Whickerville, Kentucky, and Panama City Beach, Florida, where he had many wonderful family vacations at “the beach,” with internment at St. John’s United Church of Christ Cemetery in Penntown, Indiana.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in his memory to the Five Points Conservation Club, P.O. Box 39003, Indianapolis, IN 46239.

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