Danny Richard Rinehart

Danny Richard Rinehart was born December 27, 1936 in Odd, West Virginia to Lizzie Jane Bruffy and John Robert Rinehart. “I was born the odd one!” he said. In 1945 the Rineharts moved by train to Phoenix where Danny attended Pendergast Elementary School. He played varsity football as a sophomore at Phoenix Union High School and eventually at Phoenix College. But whenever possible Danny and his brothers hitchhiked to the Mogollon Rim to hunt and camp. Danny’s love of the outdoors is evident in the occupations he pursued. He was a horse wrangler at Apache Maid Ranch, exhibition acrobatic skydiver, skilled taxidermist and ultimately, mountain man. Since the 1970s, Danny lived on the Rim, down the Colcord Rd in a cabin built by the Rhinehart boys. He sewed his clothes from skins, flintknapped arrowheads and knives, hunted with hand-crafted bows and muzzleloaders, traveled horseback, and most famously, walked cross-country from his cabin to Roosevelt Lake. Danny died in Camp Verde, August 28, 2023 at 86. He joins his parents Lizzie and John, brothers Truett, Donald, Charles, Clarence, Bud, John Jr, Harold, Norman, and sisters Lora Huffman and Joyce Robertson in eternal rest. He is loved and missed by many, including his sister-in-law, Karen Rhinehart, nephews and nieces John Huffman, Barbara Peterson, Dean Rhinehart, Judy Masse, Jackie Ryan, Duran Robertson, Camille Brougher, Cathy Worthem, Chris Rhinehart, and 41 great and great-great nieces and nephews. In the days before he passed, Danny tapped his fingers to his favorite songs, Strawberry Roan and El Paso, looked at pictures of family, friends, his cabin and camping out at Aravaca, Roosevelt Lake, and Kinnikinick. He said, “Remember the time I walked to Roosevelt?”