Richard Gene Sands, age 78 of Yellville, passed from this life on Tuesday, October 21, 2008 at Baxter Regional Medical Center in Mountain Home. He was the son of the late Paul and Minnie (Sholes) Sands and was born in Burnsville, West Virginia on November 20, 1929. He was the Marine Transportation Supervisor with Pennzoil Company out of Abbeville, Louisiana, where he retired to Yellville after thirty-four years of employment. He was a member of St. Andrew’s Catholic Church.

He is survived by his wife Blanche Sands of fifty-eight years; four sons, Michael and Donald Sands, both of Lafayette, Louisiana, Roy Sands of Yellville, and Mark Sands of Shreveport, Louisiana; two daughters, Lea Ann Phillips of Shreveport, Louisiana and Lesa Marie Otten of Fayetteville, Arkansas; grandsons, John Sands, Bryan Sands, Windell Phillips, Jr., Richard Phillips, Andrew Sands John Mark Otten and Matthew Otten and two granddaughters, Michelle Sands and Ashlee Sands; and great-grandchildren, Madison Sands, John Logan Sands and Windell B. Phillips III.