Lynn Zell McDaniel

Carol Lynn Zell McDaniel, age 84, passed away peacefully in the early morning of June 29, 2022. Lynn was born November 27, 1937, in Birmingham, Alabama to Robert Burton Zell and Margaret Zell. She attended Edgewood Elementary and Shades Valley High School. She married her childhood sweetheart, Ben Glasgow McDaniel, Sr., on June 26, 1959, shortly after their graduation from Auburn University (known as Alabama Polytechnic Institute at that time) in the Spring of 1959. Lynn Zell is listed as the last student to graduate from Alabama Polytechnic Institute before the college was renamed Auburn University in 1960. Lynn and Ben were married for almost 55 years.

The young couple spent their first two years of married life in Germany where Ben served as a Lieutenant in the US Army. Lynn often shared fond memories of their time there. The time overseas likely inspired Lynn’s love of travel. She analyzed the colors and beauty of the world around her and became an avid painter who captured the beauty in her oil paintings.

For many years, she painted beautiful landscapes and later found joy in painting portraits of her children, grandchildren, and their dogs and cats. A few years after her husband died, her health began to fail, and she moved to Village Park memory care in Alpharetta, Georgia, near daughter Ann Marie. At Village Park, the care was excellent, and she was surrounded by her own artwork. Many times, the managers would take a new family on a tour of the facility, being sure to stop in her room to show off the gallery of art.

 Lynn was preceded in death by her husband, her parents, her brother Edwin Lee“ Buddy” Zell and her sister Kathy Zell Scruggs. She is survived by daughters Amy McDaniel Williams (husband, Steve), Ann Marie McDaniel Lewis (husband, Brian) and son, Benjamin Glasgow McDaniel, Jr. (wife, Cynthia); grandchildren, Elizabeth McDaniel Chesebro (husband, Cooper), Morgan McDaniel Morris (husband, James), Benjamin McDaniel III, Whit McDaniel, Benjamin Lewis (wife, Stephanie) and Caitlin Lewis; and countless other loving relatives.

Visitation will be at Ridout’s Valley Chapel in Homewood on Tuesday, July 5, 2022, from 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM. A private family service will take place at Elmwood Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Benjamin G. McDaniel Presidential Scholarship at Auburn University, which Lynn and her husband endowed, or to Big Oak Ranch, www.bigoak.org, which Lynn and her husband supported over many years, including by providing funds for the Lynn Zell house, with the knowledge that Big Oak Ranch provides a loving, stable Christian home for children who have been abused, neglected or abandoned.

A visitation for Carol Lynn will be held Tuesday, July 5, 2022 from 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM at Ridout's Valley Chapel, 1800 Oxmoor Road, Homewood, AL 35209.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.ridoutsvalleychapel.com for the McDaniel family.