Birth date: Jun 10, 1939 Death date: May 5, 2020
Don King French of Dallas, Texas, passed away on Tuesday, May 5, 2020, at the age of 80. After being diagnosed with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis six years ago, he lived his life gracefully, continuing to fight, pray and love his Read Obituary
Donnie, I'm sorry for your loss. Your family is in my thoughts and prayers!
-Deidra Cunningham-
Oh my gosh, French!!!! I've taken this long to write, since I've been searching for that infamous picture taken on my 21st bday! You remember, and Donnie remembers...hehe....she crashed the party! Well, it really wasn't a party, it was just you and me and my roommate at the apartment on Hudnall celebrating my bday. At that point, I hadn't met Donnie and I was trying to get you to introduce me to John (Warriner)! Well, as we know, the rest is history!
For 53 years since, you have been one of my best, if not, BEST friend! So many amazing memories. My visits to Dallas will never be the same without you. You took a piece of me when you left last week but I kept a piece of you! So back at you!!!! xoxxoxo
A couple of sweet memories here on my 60th bday! Wow, what a weekend!
Love to you forever with all my heart!
Sandy Warriner
Frenchie, I miss you already. I wish you were here now so that we could stroll the empty streets of South Beach and laugh about that one time the opossum darted in front of us, and with these uneven sidewalks you tripped and fell and nearly broke your wrist. Remember? I was so startled I didn't know what to do. We laughed about that years later! That was quite the weekend on South Beach celebrating my mom's 60th. You, Donnie and Dax rented a tiny apartment to share, which I thought was so cool. Why would you need a large space anyway when we'd be out all day and all night? Boy did we celebrate!
French loved having a good time and that's one of my favorite parts about him. He was always in the moment, and wanted to have fun. He was loving towards me and treated me like I was part of the clan never missing a birthday. Lucky me!
Can't wait until our paths cross again, Frenchie. Unit then, I'll be sipping on aggravations thinking about you.
All my love and more.
-Lori Warriner
Don was known to many of his friends and certainly his family as a great cook of many genres of food! A man who could put on a “come as you are “ dinner party, just because he wanted to try a new recipe. He created gourmet menus for our camping trips on the Brazos River and our House Boat trips; one menu on the Brazos we had escargot, grilled bacon rapped shrimp along with red beans & rice!!
His culinary skills were enhanced when Donnie gave him a gift of a day with Chef Dean Fearing at the Mansion on Turtle Creek. From that day forward he used Chef Fearing techniques, wore his personalized Chef jacket and Chef hat and known to many as Chef French.
I had the great honor for 19 years to be his Sous Chef for the annual New Year’s Eve dinner party and really for other big dinner parties he and Donnie hosted. I learned so much from Don from deciding on a gourmet menu, to shopping for hours ,to a day of
pre-prep, to cooking, to plating each course and paring the wines. And Donnie was behind scenes, cleaning up after us, washing our cooking towels and being so patience when we used every piece of china and crystal; the 3 of us were a team! I will miss those times and the presences of Chef French , but most of all I will miss you Don King French ,the man who was as close as a brother to me, so grateful and blessed that I was considered family for 45 years.
.
Loving memories always and forever,
Your Chef Sandy Huffman
Knew him for 58 years, did everything with him, roommates, hunted together, traveled together partiered together did all and never had a cross word with one another!! Will be missed a lot! Huff
