David Knighten

With sorrow we announce the passing of David John Knighten of ailments incident to age.  He was in his beloved Wyoming with his wife, son at a daughter’s home.

Dave was born November 22, 1931 to Dallas A. Knighten and Martha Rice Balden on his grandmother’s dairy farm North of Midwest, Wyoming.  After graduating from Johnson County High School, he went to Casper College for two years.  While in college he learned to dance and became an instructor with the Arthur Murray School of Dance. After finishing school he enlisted in the Army for three years.  When you asked him what he did in the army he would say he trained men to use a new missile system and couldn’t say more than that.

Post military he was hired by McCullough Tool working in the oil fields.  He was then posted to Vernal, Utah where he met his wife, Barbara Jane Brown.  It was there he joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  They were married on September 5, 1958 and were promptly transferred to Farmington, New Mexico.   A son, David Gail, was born nine months later.  Soon enough a daughter, Laurel Elaine, joined the family on their second anniversary.  At this time, they were living in “The Ice Box of the Nation,” Big Piney, Wyoming.  He worked in the oil field 7 more years during which time their last daughter, Julie Ann, was born.

In 1969 Dave was hired by Brigham Young University where he worked for 25 years until retiring.  During those years he earned an associate’s degree in electrical work from Utah Valley Technical College.  He got his pilot’s license, a goal from childhood.  And he enjoyed the Experimental Aircraft Association meetings and held different positions in the local leadership over the years.  After retiring, he and his wife traveled with and without family throughout the U.S. and Britain.

He passed away on December 25, 2020 with his wife and son at his side.  He is proceeded in death by his parents; brothers, Patrick, Dallas, and Daniel; sisters Eva, Ruth, and Elizabeth; and granddaughter, Crystal.

He is survived by his loving wife Barbara; his siblings Earl, James and Martha; his children, David, Laurel (Chris) Biggs, and Julie (Lee) Myers; 8 grandchildren, Brandy (Robert) Bond, Joshua and Joe Biggs, Nicole (Sage) Biggs, Lee III, Eon, and Dallas Myers; and 5 great-grandchildren, Michael, James, Katelyn and Lilly Bond and Xander Quinney.

He will be interred at the Buffalo, Wyoming Willow Grove Cemetery on December 30,2020  at 1:00 p.m.  If you wish to come, please wear a mask and practice safe distancing. In lieu of flowers, take your loved ones out for his favorite treat, ice cream.

Our thanks go to Schrader, Aragon and Jacoby Funeral Home in Cheyenne for all of their help.