System Mechanic - Clean, repair, protect, and speed up your PC!Mary Ramsey
Mary Alice Ramsey passed away Wednesday, Oct. 24th in the home where she resided with husband Jim Ramsey.
Services will be Tuesday, Oct 30th at 2:00 in Edmond at Matthews Funeral Home Chapel located 601 S. Kelly.
Mary was born in Eufaula on Nov. 9, 1938 to James Otis and Maggie Leona Joyner.
Mary graduated from Vamosa High School.
She lived in Oklahoma all her life but the last 38 years in Edmond.
She was a homemaker, raised two children and helped Jim with the family business.
She loved and enjoyed family, friends, shopping and her jewelry.
Surviving her is her husband, Jim of the home; daughter, Thresa Holseko and her husband Steve of Shell Knob, Mo.; son, Cary Ramsey of Edmond; three sisters and two brothers that resided in Oklahoma and one sister in Arizona; also granddaughter, Jessica Holesko of Marietta, Ga and grandson, Joshua Williams and his wife Kendall and their three children of San Clemente, CA.; and several nieces and nephews.
Preceeding her in death are her parents, one sister and two brothers.
Those who wish to send flowers please send to the funeral home.
James Rankin
James Howard Rankin, 88, longtime Seminole resident died Saturday, Dec. 22, 2012 in Shawnee.
He was born July 11, 1924 in Mulberry, Ark. to George Argus and Grace L. (Ward) Rankin.
He was retired from Atlantic Richfield as a Gas Plant Superintendent.
He served in the U.S. Airforce as a Pilot during World War II and retired from Air Force Reserves at the Rank of Major.
He is survived by his wife Sue Rankin of Seminole; one son, Dale Rankin; and a sister, Jerry Bodkin of Maud.
Funeral services will be held 2:00 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 27, 2012 at the Seminole Church of Christ on North Highway 99, with Chris Stinnett officiating.
Burial will be at Maple Grove Cemetery in Seminole.
The Story of Local Resident Howard Rankin is the Story of His Hometown of Seminole
Funeral services are Thursday
By Dale Rankin
When Howard Rankin first moved to Seminole the streets were mud, oil was just learning to be King, and The Seminole Producer was not yet old enough to enter the first grade.
The year was 1931 and Mr. Rankin was seven years old, just four years older than the newspaper
.
Over the course of the next nine decades, until his death at 88 last week, his story and the story of his hometown were one and same.
James Howard Rankin lived all but fifteen years of his life in the Seminole area and his career in the oil industry began when his family arrived in Seminole in the early days of the oil boom.
Seminole was a Boom Town
Howard was born July 11, 1924 in Mulberry, Ark. where his family was in the cotton business and it was the boll weevil that brought them to Seminole.
If you asked Howard’s father, the late George Rankin of Maud, he would tell you that the last four letters of "weevil" were no accident.
When the boll weevils invaded Arkansas the family donated their land to the county, the Rankin Cemetery is still there today just outside Mulberry, and they headed west.
They settled in a work camp between Earlsboro and Seminole where George’s cousin, a Church of Christ Minister, had helped him find a job with the Magnolia Oil Company who owned the camp where the family moved in. Along with other Magnolia employees they lived in temporary dwellings that consisted of wood floors and waste-high wooden walls with canvas roofs.
It was here that Howard met a man that was to be his lifelong friend, Pete Floyd who passed away two years ago.
Pete introduced him to his uncle Charlie, known to most Seminole residents these days as Pretty Boy Floyd but "we never called him that to his face."
Family lore includes the story of George Rankin watching as Charles Floyd and his partner George Birdwell of Maud, divided up the take from their robbery of the Earlsboro bank in the Magnolia shop, but how they never struck the Seminole bank because a friendly local doctor would bind up their bullet wounds without asking a lot of questions.
Over the years Charles passed though town helping his relatives with cash and showing his machine gun to the kids who eagerly scanned the crowd at Birdwell’s funeral where Charlie was rumored to attend dressed as a woman.
Life in wartime
The oil fields around Seminole provided jobs that got the family through the Depression as Howard and his older sister Alene, now of Drumright, made their way through the Prairie View school system. The old schoolhouse is gone now but as recently as last year Howard loved to drive past the site and point out where it stood, and where the family bought their first home located at the end of a dirt road just outside Earlsboro.
In 1942, Howard was working in a Seminole grocery store and about to graduate from high school when Pete stopped by and told him he was headed to Shawnee to take his test to enter pilot training for the U.S. Army Air Corps.
Military service after graduation was a given in those times and Pete figured flying over the battlefield was better than digging foxholes in it and Howard agreed.
They set off for Shawnee in a borrowed Ford and a few weeks later word came back that both had been accepted into flight school.
In the war years there existed a buddy plan, which guaranteed that if two friends volunteered together they would be assigned to the same unit for active service.
After basic training in San Antonio, Howard was enrolled in flight school, but Pete was three pounds too light.
Howard was commissioned an Army Air Corps Lieutenant and over the next four years piloted B-24 and B-25 bombers, always volunteering for overseas service but instead being trained in larger and larger bombers rolling off the wartime assembly lines.
George and the rest of the family stood outside their home in Maud and watched in awe as their son who only two years before had been sacking groceries in Seminole roared overhead and waved from the window of his B-24 as he tipped his wings and waved to the crowd.
Howard was issued orders for Saipan where he was to pilot one of the thousand B-29 Superfortress bombers that was to fly over Japan each day in an effort to bring The Last Good War to a close.
Two atomic bombs created a change in plans and Howard returned to Oklahoma where he studied engineering at the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University.
Life goes on
As his studies were winding up in 1949 he met and married his wife of 63 years, Naomi Sue Rankin who still resides in Seminole, and accepted a job with Sinclair Oil Company’s plant 12 just outside Seminole. They settled down in their first home at 1222 Eureka Street, before buying their first home near Sinclair’s Plant 12 on the Southside of town.
The years passed and in 1957 the family added a son, Dale Howard Rankin who now lives in North Padre Island Tex.
And in 1962, after a short stint in St. Louis, Okla., Sinclair sent them to Laurel, Miss., where Howard built and managed Sinclair’s Plant 30 during the hotbed of the Civil Rights Movement, then sweeping through the region.
In 1965, the family relocated to Portland, Tex., on the Gulf Coast where Howard was the Superintendent of Sinclair’s Plant 20 and where the family remained until 1977 when Howard moved back to the place where he started and always knew he would return, Seminole.
Home to Seminole
He took over as the Superintendent at Sinclair Plant 13 in and he and Sue bought 40 acres just west of the intersection of Highway 99 and Highway 59 which had been the work yard for the Barnsdill Oil Company during the drilling of the oil field discovered there in 1927, the same year The Seminole Producer began publishing.
They built a new home and remained there for a few years until they moved to their current residence on Eloise Circle on Seminole’s north side.
Howard remained in the Air Force Reserve until 1982, retiring as a Major, and settled into life in Seminole.
He and Sue traveled to Europe and to 49 states, Howard always wanted to go to Hawaii but didn’t want to fly that far in a plane unless he was flying it.
They often flew their own plane to Bob’s Barbeque in Ada for dinner, and to the airstrip on Lake Eufaula where they bought a lakehouse and the years passed.
Howard helped design the new building for the Seminole Church of Christ on the north side of town where he was a Deacon, he said the old building had way too many steps for people to have to go up and down.
Howard passed away last Friday and his funeral will be held in that new building at 2:00 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 27.
He is survived by his wife of 63 years, Naomi Sue Rankin of Seminole; his son Dale Howard Rankin of North Padre Island, Tex.; sisters, Gerry Bodkin of Maud and Alene Saulsbery of Drumright.
Letting go is hard for Howard’s friends and family but they take heart in the fact that Howard’s was a life well lived.
He leaves behind memories of a life and times that are part of the fabric of the town that he loved and called home Seminole.
Pauline Rayburn
Pauline Rayburn passed from this life on Sunday, Jan 15, 2012 to a better life with Jesus.
Funeral services will be held at Bethel Assembly of God Church, 10:00 a.m., Wednesday Jan 18, 2012 with Rev. Ron Meadors officiating, under the direction of the Don Grantham Funeral Home, with burial to follow at Resthaven Cemetery in Duncan.
Pauline grew up in Seminole and worked at Seminole Hospital as a cook.
In 1972, she moved to Duncan where she graduated from LPN school and worked at the old Duncan Regional Hospital.
She married Raymond Isaacs who preceded her in death.
She later worked at Dr. Edwards office until she retired in 1990 when she married Grady Rayburn.
They enjoyed traveling for a while but maintained their home in Duncan.
Pauline is survived by her husband, Grady of the home; two children, Delbert Rhodes and wife Debbie of Ft. Worth, Tx and Sandra Sands of Seminole. Five grandchildren, Sean Rhodes, Jason Rhodes and wife LeAnn, Chris Rhodes and wife Sarah, Kevin Rhodes and Robin Dillon. Eight great grandchildren, Angelina Campbell, Daphne Smith and husband Andrew, Charity Dillon, Derek Rhodes, David Rhodes, Dominic Rhodes, Nate Rhodes, and Abby Rhodes and one great great grandchild, Issac Bain. Three stepchildren, Marilyn Marks and husband Joe of Duncan, OK., Mike Rayburn and wife Martha of Norman, OK., and Ronnie Rayburn and wife Mary of Grove, OK. Four step grandchildren, Dovie Rayburn, Anthony Rayburn, Tammy Disart and husband Greg Rance Rayburn and wife Shelice and one step grandchild, Dillon Rayburn, and a special nephew she helped raise, Dale Stillwell of Norman, Ok.
Pauline was preceded in death by her parents, Jiles Teague and Ida (Hale) Teague, one sister, Thelma Stillwell, one brother, J.T. Teague, half-sister Pearl Graham, and a son-in-law, Bob Sands.
Pallbearers will be Sean, Chris, Jason, Kevin, Derek and David Rhodes.
Harold Reed
Harold Douglas "Doug" Reed, age 90 and long-time resident of Konawa died at his home on Friday, May 18, 2012.
Funeral services are scheduled for 10:00 a.m. Tuesday, May 22, 2012 at Swearingen Funeral Home Chapel in Konawa. Lance Reed will officiate.
Honorary Pallbearers are Michael D. Calhoun, Jacob W. Calhoun, Trey Rigsby, Aaron Rigsby, David Rigsby, Chris Gallardo, and Skyler Gallardo.
Burial will follow on Friday at Canaan Corner Cemetery in Waymart, Pennsylvania.
He was born May 12, 1922 in Carbondale, Pennsylvania to Harold A. Reed and Mildred (Jopling) Reed.
He worked as a Supply Officer in the Air Force and retired as Master Sergeant.
He married Myrtle Williams on Aug 17, 1944 in Milford, Pennsylvania.
He is survived by four daughters, Sandy Reed of Konawa, Jackie Calhoun of Konawa, Linda Palmer of Tulsa and Debra Reed of El Dorado Hills, California; eleven grandchildren, sixteen great grandchildren, and one great-great grandchild.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Harold and Mildred Reed; his wife, Myrtle Reed; one son, Wayne Douglas Reed; one son-in-law, Frank Alexander and four brothers.
In Lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the website, "smiletrain.org" or Smile Train P.O. Box 96231 Washington, D.C. 20090-6231.
