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GERALD RAY BARNES
1936-2005
GROVE, Okla. - Gerald Ray Barnes, 69-year-old area resident, passed from this life on Thursday, November 17, 2005 at his home following a long battle with cancer.
Gerald was born May 11, 1936 in Ringling, Oklahoma to George and Pearl (Acox) Barnes. He was a retired food salesman. Gerald was united in marriage to Shirley Jo Barnes on May 20, 1945. They moved to the Bernice/Afton area in 1997 from Arkansas.
Surviving family members include: his wife; Shirley of the home, one daughter; Brenda Bensmiller of Houston, Texas, two sons; Jerry Barnes of Denver, Colorado, David Barnes of Dallas, Texas, one sister; Shirley Kast of Coeur d’ Alene, Idaho, one brother; Don Barnes of Bourne, Texas and five grandchildren.
Gerald was preceded in death by his parents and one son; Steven Barnes who passed on October 10, 1985.
Funeral Services will be held at 2 p.m., Saturday, November 19, 2005 at the Turner Funeral Chapel, 722 N.W. 46th Street, Grove, OK. Mr. Winston Dunaway will officiate. A graveside service will be held on Sunday, November 20, 2005 at 2 p.m., at the Ringling Memorial Cemetery in Ringling, OK.
The family will receive friends from 7 p.m. till 8 p.m., on Friday, November 18, 2005 at the Turner Funeral Chapel.
For those who wish, you may send an online condolence to the family by logging onto: www.turnerfuneralchapel.com and click on obituaries, the deceased name, send condolence.
Services are entrusted to Turner Funeral Chapel of Grove, OK. 918-787-2444
JOHN MALLORY BENNETT
1936-2005
AFTON, Okla. - John Mallory Bennett, 69, Afton, OK died Wednesday, November 16, 2005 at his residence under the loving care of St. Francis Hospice of Vinita, OK.
John was born September 13, 1936 in Grand Rapids, MI. He was one of two children born to John Maxwell Bennett and Mildred DeYoung. John was an Army Veteran and served as a firefighter in MI, WI and OK. He was a security officer and volunteered as a Deputy Sheriff in Afton, OK area. He was also an independent truck driver and in sales for a short time. Lastly, he retired from the House of Hope, Inc. as manager and a counselor in drug rehabilitation.
John was a member of the United Methodist Church since 1976. His parents precede him in death. He is survived by wife, Ann; his sister, Phyllis Jean Holmberg and husband, Les of Comstock Park, MI. Children also survive him: daughter, Phyllis Jean Stajner and husband, Dennis of Crete, NB;son, Michael B. Bennett and wife, Mary of Afton, OK; son, Sol N. Irvine of San Antonio, TX; daughter, Jennifer L. Bennett of Elkhart Lake, WI; daughter, Lisa A. Bennett of WI; son, Peter J. Bennett and wife, Cindy of Sheboygan, WI; daughter, Cassandra L. Irvine of Liberty, MO; son, Matthew C. Bennett and wife, Jenny of Sheboygan, WI; and 24 grandchildren; and 7 great grandchildren. Also a nephew, David Holmberg and family of Cedar Springs, MI and a niece, Marcia Arp and family of Comstock Park, MI. Also an aunt and cousins and other family, friends, and caring neighbors.
John willed his body to medical science. A memorial service will be held at the First United Methodist Church, Grove, OK. Memorial contributions may be made to the House of Hope, Inc., PO Box 451585, Grove, OK 74345-1585.
LARRY DON (DUCE) BOOTH II
Larry Don (Duce) Booth II, a 33-year-old resident of Miami, Oklahoma passed away Thursday, November 17, 2005. He was a Superior Foundry Employee at Pittsburg, Kansas. Services will be 2 p.m., Tuesday at the Cutting Edge Ministries Church. Visitations will be 7 to 8 p.m., Monday November 21, 2005 at Cooper-Althouse Funeral Home Chapel, Miami, Oklahoma.
CLIFFORD C. COLLETTE
1920-2005
Clifford C. Collette, 85, died Nov. 30, 2005 at Integris Grove General Hospital. Mass of Christian Burial will be Friday, Dec. 2, 2005, 9 a.m. at St. Elizabeth Catholic Church, Grove, OK with Father Alex Kennedy as celebrant. Interment
with military honors will follow at Ft. Gibson National Cemetery. Recitation of the Rosary will be at 7 p.m. Thursday at Ellis Funeral Home, 107 S. Broadway, Grove, OK. The family will receive friends at the funeral home following the Rosary.
Clifford was born Jan. 10, 1920 in Clyde, KS the son of Adlore and Rosanna Balthazor Collette. Mrs. Collette was employed by the United States Postal service until his charter member of the Knights of Columbus, Clyde, KS and a charter member of the American Legion of Clyde, KS.
Survivors include a sister, Helen Michaud of Ames, Iowa and numerous nieces and nephews. Services are entrusted to the Ellis Funeral Home, Grove, OK.
REBA NEIGHBORS COLLINS
1925-2005
EDMOND, Okla. — Oklahoma educator, author and historian Reba Neighbors Collins, considered the world’s foremost scholar on Will Rogers, died Monday morning at Edmond Regional Medical Center after a brief illness. She was 80.
Services will be at 10 a.m. Thursday at Baggerley Funeral Home Chapel in Edmond.
Dr. Collins served as the director of the Will Rogers Memorial Commission in Claremore from 1975 until 1989. Author of seven books and hundreds of articles about Rogers, she traveled worldwide speaking on television and radio about the man she affectionately called, “Our Will.”
Senate President Pro Tem Stratton Taylor, whose district includes both the Will Rogers Memorial and Will Rogers Birthplace, said, "Reba Collins was a wonderful director of the Will Rogers Memorial who was instrumental in so many ways to preserving his legacy. Whether it was her books about him, her work in promoting him or her work during the 100th anniversary of his birth, she was excellent. It was a joy to work with her for many years. She will be missed."
“Will Rogers Says…Favorite Quotations Selected by the Will Rogers Memorial Staff” was her best selling work, having sold about 80,000 copies, said Gloria Quaid, long-time friend whose company published the book. The book later was released as a Will Rogers Follies, Special Edition, sold in connection with the Broadway performances and national tours.
Dr. Collins was most proud of her work, “Will Rogers: Courtship and Correspondence—1900-1915” published in coffee-table format in 1992, Quaid said. The work was a collection of personal letters from Will Rogers to his wife Betty. The letters were entrusted to Collins by the Rogers family, who also gave her their personal insight into the man they knew.
Dr. Collins was born Aug. 26, 1925, in Shawnee, Okla., to Robert Luther and Susie Peek Neighbors. She grew up near Edmond and was valedictorian of her eighth grade class at Rock Mound School.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in 1958 from Central State University, then worked at Central from 1958 to 1975 as a journalism professor and director of the university’s public relations. She earned a master’s in 1959 and a doctorate in 1968, both from Oklahoma State University, where her dissertation was “Will Rogers, Writer and Journalist.”
“It must be sinful to enjoy a dissertation as much as I did,” Collins later wrote in her own good-humored style.
Earlier this year, she was named to the Oklahoma Historians Hall of Fame. She received the 2004 Preservation Award from the Edmond Historical Society for her community service. Collins was named to the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame in 1998.
In 1979, she was named a Distinguished Former Student at Central, and in 2003 she and the Neighbors-Collins family were named Central’s Family of the Year. She served on the UCO Alumni Association Board of Directors, retiring just last year.
Dr. Collins was appointed to the Will Rogers Memorial Commission in 1971. She and her husband Delmar were named to head the memorial in 1973 upon the death of its founding director, Paula Love McSpadden, a niece of Will Rogers. Dr. Collins continued to serve as director until 1989 and as resident scholar until 1991 when she became lifetime director emeritus. During her tenure, the Memorial doubled in size, adding a theater, library, study rooms and offices. It became a center for scholarly research as well as the state’s top tourist attraction at the time of her retirement.
Dr. Collins also conceived the idea of turning the Will Rogers Birthplace into a working ranch, recreating the period after his birth on Nov. 4, 1879. That has been completed since her retirement, and the Dog Iron Ranch in Oologah, like the Memorial in Claremore, now is open without charge 365 days a year.
During Dr. Collins retirement ceremonies, first President George Bush lauded Dr. Collins for a career “characterized by loyalty and dedication.” The ceremony was held on Aug. 15, 1991, the 55th anniversary of the Barrow, Alaska, crash that killed Rogers and Oklahoma aviation pioneer Wiley Post. A plaque in the Memorial’s library, where Dr. Collins said she spent many of her happiest hours, says she has been “known for decades as the leading expert on Will Rogers’ life, writings and achievements.”
Jim Hartz, the former NBC Today Show host who was then a commissioner and now chairs the Will Rogers Memorial Commission, said at her retirement, “I order this to be no more than a short vacation before you resume your work as Oklahoma’s greatest authority on, and ambassador from, the life and times of our favorite son.”
“Retirement” for Dr. Collins meant more books, worldwide speaking engagements, and newspaper columns for the Edmond Sun and The Tribune in Bethany and northwest Oklahoma City. Her most recent column was published last week.
She was preceded in death by her husband Delmar Collins, who died in 1983, and husband William A. “Bill” Hubbard, whom she married in 1990. He died in 1999.
Survivors include her two daughters, Rebecca Lee Janes and Wendy Johnson, both of Edmond; and son, Dennis Collins of Phoenix, Ariz.; in addition to eight grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.
HELEN MARGARET DOWNING
1916-2005
Helen Margaret Downing, former Fairland resident, passed away Nov. 15, 2005, at her home in Oklahoma City. She was 89. She was born in Miami, OK, on Jan. 17, 1916, to Maude and Roy Givens, who preceded her in death. She graduated from Miami High School and went to Draughns Business School in Springfield, MO. Helen married Virgil Downing, Jr., On June 29, 1940, She was a member of the Community of Christ Church. She worked for Central National Bank in Oklahoma City and was later office manager for Dr. Bruce Bell. She was a past president of the Poetry Society of Oklahoma and the Okla. City Branch of American Pen Women. She was also listed in the Who’s Who Directory of Poets and Writers. Her published works include Sounds the Heart Makes and Toward Eternity. She had lived in Oklahoma City from 1940 until 1982, when the move was made to Fairland, moving back to Oklahoma City in 2002. She was preceded in death by her sister, Faye Carrico.
She is survived by her husband of 65 years, Virgil Downing; children, Jody Wilson and her husband, Woody, of Fairland, Van Downing and wife, Suzy, of Oklahoma City, and Susan McFarlane and husband, Doug, of Oelwein, Iowa; grandchildren Todd and Tammy Wilson, Jill and Bill Nay, Bret and Donnette Wilson, Melissa and Jeff Tyrcha, Matt and Molly McFarlane, Michelle and Paul Greene, Jennifer Margaret and Shane Stout, Travis McFarlane, and Ted Downing; and great-grandchildren Kassidy and Corey Wilson, Parker and Katie Nay, Cash and Rylan Wilson, Madison and Emily Trycha, Lauren and Kylee Greene and Anna Margaret Stout, a niece, Sandra Pirrong and nephew, Gene Carrico. A funeral service will be at 1:00 p.m., Friday, Nov. 18, 2005, at Community of Christ Church in Miami, with Elder Leroy Hatfield and Doug McFarlane officiating. Serving as pallbearers will be Todd Wilson, Bret Wilson, Ted Downing, Bill Nay, Jeff Tyrcha, Shane Stout, and Paul Green.
Interment will follow at Fairland Cemetery. A visitation will be from 7-8 p.m., Thursday, at Adcock Funeral Home in Fairland. Services provided by Adcock Funeral Home in Fairland.
HELEN DUNCAN
1932-2005
Helen Duncan, 73 year-old resident of Row/Colcord, Oklahoma, died November 29, 2005, at her home. Born October 23, 1932, in Row, Oklahoma, she was the daughter of Jess Fairres and Gertie January Fairres. Helen was a lifetime resident of Row, Oklahoma. She was a retired custodian for Colcord High School where she worked for 28 years. Helen loved to fish and camp. She was a member of the Colcord Church of God and was active at the Colcord Senior Activity Center. She was preceded in death by her husband, James Duncan in 1989.
Survivors include 3 sons, Jimmie Ray Duncan of Colcord, Oklahoma; Kelvin “Pete” Duncan and his wife Darla of Colcord; Melvin Duncan and his wife Theresa of Colcord; 9 grandchildren; 13 great-grandchildren; 1 brother, Raymond Fairres of Colcord; and 1 sister, Pearl Ramsey of Oaks, Oklahoma.
Visitation will be 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, December 1, 2005, at Wasson Funeral Home, Siloam Springs, Arkansas. Funeral services will be 2 p.m. Friday, December 2, at Draper Community Center in Colcord with Brother Edward Billups, Brother Don Callaway and Mr. Larry Ellis officiating. Burial will follow in Row Cemetery near Colcord. To sign the online guest book, visit www.wassonfuneralhome.com.
GLADYS FAYE DUTTON
1920-2005
JAY, Okla. - Gladys Faye Dutton of Jay died Tuesday November 1, 2005 at the Integris Grove General Hospital in Grove, Okla. at the age of 85.
Gladys was born July 27, 1920 to Perry T. and Gladys (Brakefield) Goodman at Dover, Okla. She has lived in the area for 26 years moving from Indiana. She was a civil service nurse during W.W.II then spent most of her life as a homemaker. She was preceded in death by her husband, Donald Dutton. She was also preceded in death by two sons: John Taylor Smith Dutton, and Robert Thomas.
Survivors include ten children: Jim Thomas of Arkansas, Konnie Brock of Hungry Horse, Mt., Sharon Bachman of Pineville, Mo., Joan Ray of Huntsville, Al., Linda Reyes of Alabama, Violet Haller of Seattle, Wash., Annette King of Jay, Okla., Becky Dutton of Park Hill, Ok., Darlene Knight of Tulsa, Ok., and Janice Daugherty of Idaho. She leaves over 60 grandchildren, many great grandchildren and many great-great grandchildren.
Graveside services were 1 p.m. Monday November 7, 2005 at the Euwasha Cemetery at Kenwood, Okla. Family received friends from 6-8 p.m. Sunday at the Worley-Luginbuel Funeral Home in Jay, Okla.
LEONARD M. FORD
1929-2005
SOUTHWEST CITY, Mo. - Leonard M. Ford, 76 year-old resident of Southwest City, Missouri, died November 16, 2005 at his residence. Born September 22, 1929 in Delaware County, Oklahoma, he was the son of Lester Ford and Jennie Wood Ford. He lived most of his life in the Colcord, Oklahoma area where he graduated from Colcord High School in 1950. He was an Army Veteran of the Korean War. In 1952, he married Barbara Jean Carter in Siloam Springs, Arkansas. Leonard worked for Nichols Brothers in Southwest City, Missouri for 10 years and 25 years for Commercial Metals Company out of Dallas, Texas. After retirement, he worked for Coburn’s Furniture Store in Grove, Oklahoma. He was preceded in death by one brother, Raymond Ford.
Survivors include his wife of 53 years, Barbara, of the home; one daughter, Tamhra Ford of Memphis, Tennessee; one brother, Everett Ford of Stockton, California, and one sister, Louise Rusk of Siloam Springs, Oklahoma.
Funeral services will be 10:00 a.m., Saturday, November 19, 2005, at the United Methodist Church, Southwest City, Missouri, with Rev. David Howlett and Rev. Ray Clinton officiating. Burial will follow at Gentry Cemetery, Gentry, Arkansas. Memorial contributions may be made to the American Lung Association of Arkanasa, 211 Natural Resources Drive, Little Rock, AR 72205-9869. To sign the online guest book, visit www.wassonfuneralhome.com. Arrangements are under the direction of Wasson Funeral Home, Siloam Springs, Arkansas.
NORMA JEAN HEARD
1931-2005
Norma Jean Heard died on Nov. 1, 2005, at age 74. She was born Norma Jean Hiser on July 11, 1931, in Maysville. Ark, and was raised in Jay, Oklahoma. Jean was one of three children born to James and Ellen Hiser.
In 1951 Jean married Ira Heard in Hopewell, Virginia. After her marriage, the young couple moved often, first to Oakridge, Oregon, then to Eugene, OR, to Astoria, OR, to Edmond, OK, then to New Jersey, until they finally settled in Oregon City, OR, in 1968.
Not one to sit at home, Jean worked a variety of different jobs over the years. She was a legal secretary at Johnson, Johnson and Harrang in Eugene, a secretary for a Gladstone Engineering Firm and a travel agent in Portland. Soon after arriving in Oregon City, she became the proud owner of Heard’s Copy Shot, a small business located downtown.
Always a willing volunteer, Jean gave many hours to St. Stephen Lutheran Church, the Clackamas Historical Society, as ell as other groups, and always with that famous comforting smile. For her efforts, Jean received the Oregon City Senior First Citizen Award in 1983. She was the Clackamas County Historical Society Volunteer of the year in 1995.
Survivors include her husband, Ira Heard; daughters Susan Ramsey and Stacy Cagle; son-in-law Steve Ramsey, and grandchildren Jeff and Nikki Ramsey, and Natalie and Sam Cagle.
A memorial service was held at a packed St. Stephen Lutheran Church in Gladstone, OR, on November 5.
Remembrances may be sent to the American Heart Association in her name. Arrangements: Holman-Hankins-Bowker and Waud
