ST. PAUL, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — Former Arkansas Game and Fish Commissioner Sonny Varnell has died, the agency announced on Friday. He was 87.
AGFC said in a news release that Varnell died on Sept. 21 at his home in St. Paul in Madison County after a lengthy illness.
Sanford Lee “Sonny” Varnell Jr. was born Feb. 2, 1939, at Lake Dick in Jefferson County and grew up in Pine Bluff. After graduating from Pine Bluff High School, he attended the University of Arkansas at Monticello for two years and graduated with a BA in mechanical engineering from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville in 1963.
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In 1997, he moved to St. Paul with his wife, Corienne. AGFC said Varnell was a former chief of the St. Paul Volunteer Fire Department and was a deacon and a teacher at First Baptist Church of Elkins.
Varnell also played an important role in bringing water to rural Madison County, according to the commission…