KINGS MOUNTAIN - Donald J. Deal, 92, passed away peacefully on Thursday, April 18, 2019 at the Testa Family Hospice House in Kings Mountain.

He was born in 1927 in Hickory, to the late Mr. and Mrs. Harold G. Deal Sr. and was educated in the North Carolina Public Schools. He was a graduate of Lenoir Rhyne University and Appalachian State University.

After serving his country in the United States Navy at the end of World War II, He served as a band director for 35 years in the public schools of North Carolina. During those 35 years, His high school bands received many high ratings in District and State contest and festivals. Mr. Deal was a longtime member of the American School Band Director's Association. He was inducted into the North Carolina Bandmaster Hall of Fame in 2009. Over the years, Mr. Deal served as choir director at several Lutheran churches. He served in this capacity at Resurrection Lutheran Church, Kings Mountain for 42 years. Mr. Deal shared 68 years of marriage with his beloved wife Betty Anne. They loved to travel and relished their trips around the country as well as abroad. Betty Anne was the joy of his life and always liked to say he "married up." He was preceded in death by his three brothers, Harold, Carl and Myron Deal.

Survivors are his wife, Betty Anne Deal of Kings Mountain, and sons Joseph Deal of San Francisco, CA and John Deal of Kings Mountain.


Donald Deal was Band Director at Kings Mountain High School in Kings Mountain, NC.

"Many remember Donald Deal, listed in the North Carolina Hall of Fame for Band Directors, and all of the drills, parades and halftimes in the 1950s. The band marched in the Charlotte Thanksgiving Parade every year and won many regional and state awards. The students in that band were very talented as well, with names you might recognize. Many took their music with them to school, college, church and wherever they went. Gene Pasour later played with Arthur Smith and the Crackerjack and Barry Clemmer with the military band."

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