Darla Marie Cotner

Darla Marie Cotner, aged 71, of 606 Valley Road, Danville passed away unexpectedly on Monday, December 19, 2022 at the Geisinger Medical Center in Danville.

Born in Mahoning Township, Montour County on February 20, 1951, she was the daughter of the late Willard Andrew and Ruth Mae (Snyder) Cotner.

Darla graduated from Bloomsburg High School in 1969 where she lettered in softball and was a member of the National Honor Society. She played on a semi pro softball team for two years following high school.

She started working at an early age, but her first “real” job was at the Capital Theater in Bloomsburg from 1965 to 1970. She then worked at Sears, Roebuck & Co. in the parts and repair center from 1969 to 2008. After retiring from Sears, she worked at Knoebel’s Amusement Resort in the phone room and human resources from 2009 to the present. She enjoyed working, especially in her later years, but said “I do not live to work, but work to live”.

Darla was a member of St. Peter's Lutheran Church, Grovania.

Darla loved and enjoyed the outdoors, hiking, camping, fishing and hunting. She especially enjoyed fly fishing for trout and tying trout flies. She caught numerous trout over 20 inches, including “Oscar” a 24 inch brown that she caught on a size 28 dry fly four times one spring. She loved hunting, with bow hunting and muzzleloader hunting for deer being her favorites. She was successful with 53 deer kills, nine turkey kills, and one bear kill. She also harvested numerous small game animals, including two coyotes.

She loved tent camping and especially enjoyed sitting by the campfire. She enjoyed backpacking in her younger years. She was a member of the Orangeville Sportsmen’s Club, the Susquehanna Sportsmen’s Club, Freestone Fly Fishers and Fishing Creek Sportsmen. She was a life member of Trout Unlimited and  National Rifle Association (NRA).

Darla loved archery. Archery was a very important part of her life. She starting shooting the bow and arrow when she was four years old. She competed in local, conference and regional archery tournaments starting in 1971. In 1981 she started to compete in state, sectional national and world tournaments. She won numerous local, conference and regional awards. She achieved 100 state championships. She also won 10 sectional, 10 national and three world championships. She won the Atlantic City International Archery Classic six times. She set many new high score records. Darla competed in all types of archery. She was successful at indoor, field, target, bow hunter, 3D, all events and FITA archery with both the compound and recurve bows.

She was involved with the North East Pennsylvania Archery Conference from the late 1970’s to the present. She first served as a score keeper with her mother, then as secretary-treasurer. Starting in the early 1980’s, she also served as the president of the North East for one year, then as the secretary-treasurer of the region until recently. She served as a North East and North Central regional board member of the Pennsylvania State Archery Association from 1983 until recently. She was a member of the Bloomsburg, Berwick and Benton Archery Clubs. She was an honorary life member of the Pennsylvania State Archery Association. She had many good lifetime friends in archery. She tried very hard to support and promote the sport she loved, archery.

Darla loved and enjoyed life. She had a strong positive attitude to accept and deal with “life”, good or bad. She especially loved and enjoyed her family and her friends. She would like to thank her family and friends for all their help and support over the years and all the good times we shared. Darla appreciated the time she had here on earth.

She was preceded in death by her father, Willard Andrew Cotner, on March 14, 1995, her mother, Ruth M. Cotner, on July 26, 2020, her sister, Linda Arlene (Cotner) Kopidlowski, on January 29, 2014 and her brother, Wayne Barry Cotner, on January 10, 2015.

Surviving is her uncle, Robert Snyder and his wife Doris, uncle Galen Snyder, aunt Betty Harder, aunt Bess Krist and numerous cousins. A special thanks to cousins Kimberly Drumheller and her husband Jeffrey and Amy Beaver for being there for me.

Funeral services will be held on Monday, December 26, 2022, at 2 p. m. in the Dean W. Kriner, Inc., Funeral Home & Cremation Service. Interment will follow in New Rosemont Cemetery. Espy. Viewing will be on Monday from 1-2 p. m.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to any of the organizations that she belonged to.