Birth date: Mar 27, 1990 Death date: Nov 19, 2025
Derek “DJ” Joel Stout passed away on Wednesday, November 19, 2025 at the age of 35. No Services have been planned at this time. “DJ” is survived by his mother, Toni Stout; his maternal grandmother, Peggy G. Stout; two uncles, Tim Read Obituary
I got to visit with DJ at his Aunt Ramona 's Celebration of Life. I so enjoyed our time. Tyler Crochet what a beautiful tribute to DJ. I loved reading your memories. It could be a great childhood movie 🪶 Much Love Toni, Peggy, Tim, and Tad. Sending all my Love 💕 Pam Quirk Cart
My Memories of DJ Part 4 FINAL PART
The last time we spoke, I could tell that he was sick. I encouraged him to have his own grand adventure. And we ended on a extremely positive note.
His passing hits heavy to me.
Its like a part of me has left this world
A special, creative, sweet part of my childhood has gone.
If I can say anything to others after the passing of one great in intellect and creativity as DJ,
I would say to encourage your children to play creatively, fostor it. Ask them about their universes they create and play with them.
And with DJs memory in mind, as an adult, go on your own Grand Adventure ! Be the hero of your life, level up, beat the enemies, conquer your Dragons, and become the person you envisioned as a child that you wanted to become.
I know I have.
And a credit a part of that for God allowing me to meet special people like DJ.
This world is a little less creative because he isn't here.
And its a Sad time for us all.
I hope that these stories will be of some solace to his family, and know that his impact on me and the friends he did have was extremely positive, and will impact how I play with and raise my children during their young years.
I hope that they can have as fun of a time during their childhood as me and DJ had in ours.
My heart is broken by his passing
And our Prayers with his family.
Wholeheartedly
Tyler Grant Crochet
Hero of Rainbow Island
Friend of DJ
My Memories of DJ Part 3
Growing up, playing games with DJ, from GC, to Starship Commander, To Rainbow island, to playing the Legend of Zelda in his tree house...
DID I FORGET TO MENTION THAT HE HAD THE COOLEST TREE HOUSE !
Complete with latter's, a deck, a trap door, beds, window, electricity, a small TV and a Nintendo 64 !
Playing games, using our creativity, talking about Faith and God, Growing up with him will forever be apart of my journey.
And I wouldn't change those afternoons and long summer days with him for anything.
We grew up, went to highschool. Started riding four wheelers, trying to go on dates, playing video games, and DJ and I grew apart.
As we got older, He seemed to isolate himself more and more. It's like the world couldn't find a place for such a creative mind, couldn't appreciate it, and DJ grew bitter because of it.
Over the years we caught up a few times, He was just the same, I was instantly brought back to those summers as a kid. To a safe, fun place. Where I was always thinking about the next epic battle and taking comfort in the fact that I knew that I was always going to win.
I took comfort in reminiscing with him, stepping back from the weight of adulthood. He would provide me temporary relief from the pressure of my current endeavors and weight of my adult failures.
We would reminisce and then go years without speaking.
My Memories of DJ PART 2
My characters were TYLER and CLUTCH, yes he let me have 2 characters. My self as a protagonist, and then CLUTCH, the dual pistol wielding bad boy anti hero who wore leather jackets and rode a flaming motorcyle!
Neighbor kids came together and we all got to be whoever we wanted to be. I believe this practice really helped us envision the type of men we wanted to become. I know it did for me.
We all started at level 1 and DJ was the "Dungeon Master" which meant that was not a playable character, but instead the narrator of what is happening in our grand adventure. He would play the bad guys, the bosses, the characters that we would meet on our journey.
DJ had characters too, but he rarely played them. It was always funner when DJ was the dungeon master and we played. He was the most creative and the best at organizing an adventure. Complete with plot twist, betrals, meaningful connections, Items, Level Ups, Power ups, puzzles for us to solve, and created the need of cooperation from the group.
I even fibbed to the team mates one time and said that clutch was way more powerful than he actually was, and DJ went along with it and let me be super powerful compared to the others lol.
We played this game for years, even with and without DJ, in pools during the summer, in the woods during the winter. The enemies, characters we would meet, and missions would change with the time of year and area that we played in.
We all thought that this was normal, that every kid went home and got to play and use their imagination like we did. As an adult, I think back and realize what a blessing this was for my childhood. Getting older, I realized that not many kids got to have a childhood experience like this as I did. Growing up at the end of a dead end road, in the county as a kid could have been boring and uneventful, leading to other, more negative ways to entertain ourselves.
But with DJ as a friend guiding the way, we got to use our imaginations, play outside, imagine in-depth, creative, wonderful worlds, be whoever we got wanted to be and thrive as children.
He was one of the main things about my childhood that is a joy to remember
My Memories of DJ
PART 1
DJ and I spent a lot of time together as children. He was my next door neighbor, older than me, and I wanted badly to be friends.
He was hyper intelligent, a little cocky, EXTREMELY creative, and really fun to play with.
Our afternoons after school and long summer days playing together became something that I really looked forward to , and always the topic of reminiscing every time we spoke and caught up over the years.
Rainbow Island was the first game he created that we played together. An expansive make believe world that he created, complete with real life areas that we would explore across the cow fields, gullies, and woods around our house.
We carried sticks and tools from my dads shop as make believe weapons, and he led me on a journey that was an epic tale of my personal character battling make believe monsters and going on quest to save humanity and the planet. We would heal hurt trees and battle evil forces that were set on bringing death and destruction to nature.
He said my weapon was an axe, and my power was courage. His was intelligence, of course !
The dogs would go with us on adventures, and visiting friends would get to join the fun.
Our next game was Starship Commander. Similarly, to Rainbow island, but instead of in the woods, the game took place in the attic of my dads shop and in our yards.
We would climb up in the attic and sit on a bunch of old mattresses and box springs and surround ourselves with scrap iron and tools and made a Spaceship command center cock pit.
He let me be the captain, and he was a supporting Spock like character.
He never wanted to be the main character, but always wanted to support others and let them be the heroes of the grand adventure.
We would pretend that half of the attic was the Space station, and half was our ship.
We would get into our ship after school, like real heros going to work to save the space universe. We would imaginarily close the barrier between the space station and our ship, and "TAKE OFF"
We would blast into hyper speed and fly to some unknown planet and world that he would create.
We would then "Land" on the planet and disembark down the attic, through the shop and explore this new world.
There would be aliens , and intelligent races, crystals and stones with must gather, sometimes real life monsters (dogs and cows mostly) that we had to fight or avoid.
It would always end in a grand battle of us getting what we came for and fighting our way back to the attic, up to the space ship and flying warp speed back to our space station above earth just in the nick of time !
These adventures were what I lived for for a while.
School was very tough for me. I was overly extraverted, selfish, and didn't play especially well with others. Sharing, giving others a turn, and listening didn't come natural to me. So I didn't make many friends, and was extremely lonely. For a while DJ was my only friend, and someone I looked forward to coming home to see
I would think about these magical adventures during the day at school and was excited to run across the street to ask His mom if "DJ can come Play"
No one knew the grandness and details of our adventures but us. This is why I feel that this needs to be documented somewhere. Shared outload for the first time, such a integral part of my childhood that fostered the creativity that provides my life and the man I am today.
Next after Starship Commander was Galactic Crusaders ! Which became known around our street as "G.C." !
Yes, this time, other kids were involved 6-10 of us in all over the years, yes, we played for years.
This time, we were getting older, and our universes became extremely detailed and complex, much more than before.
Each kid who played has the opportunity to create a "Character" They get to pick their Race, (not white or black, but Elf, Wood elf, Ice Elf, Dark Elf, Human, Ork, Wizard, etc) They get to pick their Name, planet of orgien, powers, weapons, armor etc.
