Rodney "Roddy" Barnett Bell

Rodney "Roddy" Barnett Bell of Keller, Texas, passed away Sunday, October 11, 2026 after a brief illness.  He will be remembered as a straight shooter, a devoted husband and a consummate broadcast media professional to those who knew and worked with him.

Born on February 7, 1940, in Oskaloosa, Iowa, to Gus Barnett Bell and Elizabeth McVay Bell, Roddy grew up under Big Tops all aroundthe country as his parents were trapeze artists and acrobats for the Tom Mix Circus, the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, the Cole Brothers Circus, and the Polack Brothers Shrine Circus.  His parents also started their own circus, the Ward-Bell Circus, which toured throughout Alaska and Hawaii, and they were later enshrined into the Circus Hall of Fame in Sarasota, Florida.  The family eventually settled in the Dallas area.

After Roddy graduated from South Oak Cliff High School in 1957, he worked primarily as a chief electrician or lighting technician on various theatrical productions such as the American Ballet Theatre tours, Dallas Summer Musicals, and the Miss Teenage America Pageants.

After a stint in the U.S. Army from 1963-1965, he attended the University of Texas in Arlington and transferred to the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Rather than follow in his parents' footsteps as performers, he chose a career in commoercial film sound production and the television news industry.  He was a highly respected freelance audio technician and engineer based in the Dallas-Fort Worth area for more than four decades.  Over his career, he provided location sound and technical expertise for the major television network crews of NBC, ABC and CBS News covering signficant news events ranging from natural disasters, space missions, terrorist attacks, to presidential political campaigns.

He was preceded in death by his wife of 27 years, Jane Longnecker Bell; his parents, Gus and Elizabeth Bell; and his sister, Kaarin "Nikki" Bell Theisinger.

Many thanks go to the loving staff at Truewood by Merrill in Keller for his wonderful care over the last 2 years and to the Community Healthcare of Texas in Fort Wort in providing comforting hospice care during his final days.