Denison ISD directs memorial gifts for 8-year-old Rhett Richards to district foundation

Denison ISD has told the public that memorial gifts for Rhett Richards, an 8-year-old third grader at Mayes Elementary, should go through the Denison Education Foundation. The district said so in a post on its official Facebook page. Richards' published obituary gives his full name as Rhett David Richards and his date of death as Aug. 9, 2026.

The obituary says family members, friends, teammates, teachers, nurses and Mayes Elementary staff are among those grieving him. It lists his age as 8.

The giving route the district named already existed. The Denison Education Foundation runs a memorial and honorarium donation process, set out on its page on the district website, so gifts made in Richards' name pass through a channel the foundation used before his death.

Foundation money goes to classrooms and to graduates. Published totals put classroom grants above $1.08 million and scholarships above $964,000 to date. Those figures describe the foundation's work as a whole and say nothing about this fund. A review of the district's post and the foundation's public pages found no announced decision on how gifts given in Richards' name will be used, and no other district statement on the matter was located for this report.

Neither the district's post nor the obituary states a cause of death. No public primary-source record reviewed by GvilleTX Newsroom confirms the cause or the circumstances of the death, and the newsroom has obtained no incident report in the case. The obituary gives the date and the age without describing what came before.

Part of Lake Texoma sits inside Cooke County. Texas Parks and Wildlife defines the Texas portion as the impounded waters of the Red River in Cooke and Grayson counties, running from Denison Dam upstream to Sycamore Creek. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reports more than 6 million visitors a year at the lake, which puts one of the region's largest recreation sites within a short drive of Gainesville. On the Oklahoma side, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol says its Troop W investigates drowning incidents on Oklahoma waters, and the agency's boating safety page says inspections check for a Coast Guard-approved personal flotation device for every person aboard a vessel.

Nearby Sherman ISD offers a similar option to donors. Its education foundation accepts named memorial giving and lists memorial scholarship and fine arts funds among the accounts donors may support, according to its donation page.