David Lee Herriford, 83, of Lexington, KY passed away from complications of cancer on Tuesday, July 29, 2025. He was in hospice care at his home with loved ones by his side. But that is just the final act in the life of a truly amazing man. He was born July 17, 1942 in Glasgow, KY to the late Lester Herriford and Elizabeth Lester Herriford.
David lived all over the country as a child due to his father's career in the Navy. After returning to Kentucky, he was a great athlete who enjoyed playing any sport, especially baseball at Russell County High School. He moved to Nashville after high school with his brother Jim to attend drafting school. Afterwards he enlisted in the Air Force, where he served from 1962-1966, and was fortunate to stay stateside where he worked in Titan missile silos in Washington and Arkansas.
He came home to Jamestown, KY on leave and rekindled his relationship with the "one that got away", Linda Jean Ballenger, and they were married one month after his discharge. They celebrated 59 years of marriage this past March.
Dave began his career at IBM and finished at Lexmark, retiring from both. His illustrious career as a designer and self-taught engineer included work on a braille typewriter, the Selectrix electric typewriter, the PS1 personal computer and many different printers.
He never met a stranger, and had a true zest for life and conversation. To know him was to be given a pocket knife, asked to solve a mechanical puzzle, or watch a magic trick. Nothing made him happier than to laugh at friends and family struggling to figure out his puzzles and tricks while he assured them it was easy. He insisted that he gave the Hooey stick that particular name, because it was his idea 50 years ago to yell "hooey" every time the propeller changed direction (look it up).
He loved fishing and golf with his friends, playing cards, building things, telling stories of his childhood and workplace shenanigans, and collecting stuff. He never met a garage sale, flea market or pawn shop he didn't like, and he loved giving his treasures away to friends as much as finding them.
But his greatest accomplishment was his family. He was the best dad ever, who made plenty of time to play with his children, whether sports and games when they were young or card games when they were older. His true calling was being a grandaddy, whether to his own granddaughters Katie and Jessie, or to any of their friends or cousins. From building massive cardboard forts, hiding treasure in the yard and drawing maps to find it, impromptu magic shows, and playing doll house (where the kids always managed to find hidden M&M's), he was as big a kid as they were.
Whether he was David, Dave, Dad or Grandaddy, he was liked by everyone he met and his family loved him completely. He will be missed beyond our own comprehension, but we take comfort that he is reunited with his beloved mother and father.
SURVIVORS:
His wife: Linda Jean
1 daughter: Beth (Peter) Brown
1 son: John Herriford (Joan Sheffer)
2 grandchildren: Katie (Dayton) Walker and Jessica Brown
2 brothers Jim (predeceased by his wife Reba) and Ron (Pam) Herriford
Many other family members & friends
Service & Interment: Friday, August 1, 2025 at 12:30pmET at Camp Nelson National Cemetery, 6980 Danville Rd., Nicholasville, KY
H.E. Pruitt Memory Chapel in Jamestown, KY in charge of arrangements.
