Born of James Byrd & Margaret Murry on December 1, 1939 (both deceased)

Adopted at age 5 by Perry & Dorothy O'Neil (both deceased)

Predeceased by siblings: Delois Byrd, Patrick O'Neil, and Winifred Jewel

Survived by siblings: Gwendolyn Favez (Rudy), Richard Byrd (Naomi), Ronald Byrd (Sandra), Shirley Jewel, and Jerome Murry

He is survived by the love of his life and wife, Nancy O'Neil, his beloved children Danny Whitworth, Valnita Mack Quinn (Hennessy), Jason O'Neil (Cara), Adlanda Jernigan (Joe), and Tiffany O'Neil.  He was an Uncle to 19 Nephews and 5 Nieces.  The Grandfather of 9 and the Great-Grandfather of 5

As a young boy, he was very sick with asthma, the doctors said he probably wouldn't live past 10 years old.  Dorothy read the bible to him daily, until he was able to read it himself and he fell in love with the Lord and accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior at the age of 12. The Lord healed him of the asthma and he went on to defy the odds in High School, he was on the track team.  Randy loved sports, he played basketball a lot.  He loved to watch basketball and tennis the most but would also watch baseball, football and all the winter and summer olympics on tv. He started college as Dorothy wanted him to be a school teacher, after a year of college, he joined the US Army, after boot camp, he was stationed in Metz, France for 3 years and was in the reserves for 2 years after that.  He married Veronica, started working for Borden as a color matcher and was with the company for 36 years. While married to Veronica, he became an ordained minister. He joined a bowling team, it was at the bowling alley, he recognized and reconnected with his brother, Richard Byrd.  He was a very good bowler and carried a 220 average. I tried to encourage him to get into tournaments, he wasn't interested at that age.  He actually did become a teacher, a teacher of the Gospel.  In 1992, he and Veronica divorced, he took himself out of the church because he didn't want to be a hypocrite, at which time he was living a worldly life. We met in April 1995, after just a few weeks, he said he was going to marry me, I chuckled, however, God had a different plan and God changed my heart.  I am so thankful He did because Randy was my soulmate and treated me like a queen.  We married in April 1996.  We had a wonderful, beautiful daughter together, we were truly blessed.  One morning in 1997 we were watching Charles Stanley, a Pastor in Georgia, while he was at the pulpit reading directly from the bible, Randy was stating the exact scripture word for word as Charles read it, I was in awe as well as proud of him.  This was the first time he did this in front of me, he did this all the time with any preacher.  I happened to get saved that day.  Randy nicknamed me sponge, he said I absorbed everything he taught me.  He really knew God's word and truly tried to live by it.  Tiffany was a daddy's girl, he was always trying to get her into sports, basketball, tennis, and softball, she at least tried them all, it just wasn't her thing.  As Jesus is my spiritual rock, Randy was my earthly rock.  He always new how to calm me when anxious or angry.  He said I gave him the love that he needed and he taught me about forgiveness. One of his favorite scriptures to quote was; 1 Peter 4:8 NLT "most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins". He would paraphrase it and say "love hides a multitude of faults".  He wasn't perfect, since none of us are, however, he came the closest to being like Jesus than anyone I have ever encountered.