System Mechanic - Clean, repair, protect, and speed up your PC!Ralph Orsburn
Ralph Orsburn, a resident of Wewoka was born Nov. 14, 1911 in Wetumka to Lucy Marie and Alfred Homer Orsburn. He passed away Monday, June 4, 2007 in Henryetta, at the age of 95 years six months and 20 days.
He carried his son, Leroy through his first few years of life… and Leroy carried him during Ralph’s last few years – because that’s what families do.
He was a father who encouraged his children to work hard and live clean. He was a husband who truly shared his life with his wife of 75 years. They met at church in Holdenville when they were 18 years old.
It was the time of America’s Great Depression and the Oklahoma Dust Bowl was raging, but young Ralph Orsburn and Tennie Moran were optimistic as they wed in Holdenville on July 1, 1930.
Ralph and Tennie gardened and worked the fields together, they raised their family together, and they went fishing and traveled together.
They were together in the nursing home the night Tennie died. Ralph said, "I knew Mama was sick that night, so I went over and held her hand until she let go."
He taught his grandchildren the importance of education, and how to ride a horse, and how to catch a big bass with a worm, and how to laugh.
He passed on to his great-granddaughter a sense of family love and family history
as only Grandpa Ralph could.
Ralph left school in his early grade school years to help support his family – his mother Lucy and Uncle Charlie who raised him and his sister Lois.
They had a farm south of Wewoka where the Dixie Oil Company set out to find oil and drilled near their home. Ralph was carrying a pail of well water to the rig workers on March 17, 1923, when the Betsy Foster #1 well blew in and started the oil boom in Seminole County.
It was one of the most celebrated oil wells in the history of Oklahoma.
Ralph worked a career in the Wewoka School system as a bus driver and custodian. He was also always a farmer with hogs, chickens, cattle and horses.
In fact, Ralph was an extraordinary horse trainer: he could train a team to pull a wagon, teach a horse to plow a field without any reigns, and break a horse gentle enough for the grandkids to ride. He could even create a complete set of wagon harnesses from raw leather.
Will Rogers would have been jealous if he had ever seen Ralph twirl a rope or rope a calf. He could perform rope tricks on or off horseback that pleased and amazed rodeo crowds.
He loved to paint, whittle, and create his own kind of folk art from any natural or recycled material he could find.
He had a great sense of humor and loved to make people laugh with riddles and jokes. So we should close with one of his favorite lines: "Ralph, we’ll see more of you when we go swimming."
Ralph Earl Orsburn is survived by one sister, Lois Hailey of Holdenville; his loving son and daughter-in-law, Leroy and Carol Orsburn; granddaughter, Kathryn Shurden and her husband Frank, and great-granddaughter Mandy Brumley, all of Henryetta.
He is also survived by daughters, Louise Care of Tulsa, Lila Yahola of Moore and sons, Ellis Orsburn of Austin, Texas and Arther Orsburn of Wewoka and grandsons, David Taylor and his family of Borger, Texas and grandson, Glenn Orsburn and his family of Las Vegas, Nev., and many other relatives.
He was preceded in death by his wife of 75 years, Dora Tennessee (Moran) Orsburn and his parents, Alfred Homer and Lucy Orsburn, the uncle who raised him, Charlie Orsburn, and one brother, Claude Orsburn.
Donald Osborn
Donald G. Osborn, 81, Oklahoma Baptist University Vice President Emeritus for Student Development, died Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2007 at his home in Shawnee.
He was born in Cushing on Aug. 6, 1926, the first of three children to Don C. and Opal M. (Munds) Osborn.
Mr. Osborn was a 1944 graduate of Cushing High School.
He earned his Bachelor of Arts in history, government and education at Oklahoma Baptist University in 1951 and a Master of Arts in history from the University of Oklahoma in 1960.
Further graduate study in the field of the history of philosophy and higher education followed.
He married Karleen Helen Moore on Jan. 28, 1951 in Ardmore where her father Dr. Karl Moore was the minister at the First Baptist Church in Ardmore.
He served in the United States Marine Corps during the final year of World War II and the first year of the occupation of Japan.
He was recalled to the Marines during the Korean Conflict and served as an officer in Korea for several months.
After his honorable discharge from the military in December of 1952, he was employed as secretary to OBU Vice President Scales.
In 1954, he began 32 year tenure as a student affairs administrator holding consecutively the offices of Brotherhood Dormitory Director and Dean of Men, Dean of Students and Vice President for Student Development.
During these years from 1954 to 1986, there were significant changes in the relationship of students and the institution, and OBU was in the vanguard of this movement.
His confidence that students would respond constructively to opportunities of self-determination and participation in University governance, he believed, was fully justified.
In 1986, he became the Special Assistance to the President for Planning and Research.
After five years, he was appointed University Historian and Archivist, a part-time position, in which he continued until 1998.
Mr. Osborn was also a tenured professor of history and taught five or six courses a year for about 20 years.
Additionally, he served as OBU golf supervisor/coach for 17 years.
Osborn was also a longtime member and deacon at the First Baptist Church in Shawnee.
His Service to OBU and students was formally acknowledged by three OBU connected awards: Outstanding Alumni Achievement Award in 1974, Alumni Distinguished Service Citation in 1986 and the O.B.U. Meritorious Service Award in 1990.
Sports and related activities during much of his life. Softball, baseball, and horseshoes were passions of his early years.
He was starting pitcher in 1947 for the first season of O.B.U. baseball after its hiatus for 25 years.
He played for the Cushing Merchants in 1947 and 1948 and for the Shawnee ONG Gassers in 1950.
He coached and played with a battalion baseball team during his Korean service and declined an opportunity to coach the Marine baseball team in Hawaii for two years.
He enjoyed golf and bowling for many years. Because of his coaching relationship with OBU golf, he directed some twenty collegiate golf tournaments in some of which NCAA and NAIA team champions played.
He was a co-chairman with Bob Bass of two national NAIA golf championships played on the Shawnee Elks golf course.
He was all-Events Champion in consecutive years in the Shawnee Bowling Association and his sanctioned series in league play was a Shawnee record for 16 years.
Survivors include his wife Karleen (Moore) Osborn of the home; four daughters and sons-in-law: Kay and John Harder of Rochester, New York; Carol and Bill Heitland of Pontotoc, Kim and Cam Loucks of Lewisville, Texas and Cathy and Hugh Megee of Seminole; one brother and sister-in-law, Leroy and Deloris Osborn of Huntsville, Ala.; one sister and brother-in-law, Wanda and Ron Haas of Palm City, Fla.
Other survivors include ten grandchildren and their spouses: Jeff and wife Jill Harder of Rochester, New York; Mary and husband Chad Kaufman of Bayside, New York; Nicole and Oscar Jordan of Lewisville, Texas; Jared Loucks of Lewisville, Texas; Rachel Loucks of Lewisville, Texas; Callie Loucks of Lewisville, Texas; Zach Megee of Seminole, Gavin Megee of Seminole, Charles Heitland of Pontotoc, and Karley Heitland of Pontotoc.
Mr. Osborn was preceded in death by his parents.
Funeral services are scheduled for 2 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 22, 2007 at the First Baptist Church located at 227 North Union Street in Shawnee.
Interment will follow at Resthaven Memorial Park in Shawnee with Military Honors. John W. Parrish, interim President of Oklahoma Baptist University and Larry Walker will officate at the funeral service.
Visitation will be held Thursday and Friday at the Walker Funeral Home located at the corner of 45th & Union Streets in Shawnee.
The family has designated the Donald G. Osborn scholarship fund at Oklahoma Baptist University as appropriate for memorial donations.
Services are under the direction of Swearingen Funeral Home in Seminole.
Roy H. Overstreet II
Roy Overstreet, 42, of Bellingham, Wash., son of Roy and Pauline Overstreet of Wewoka, died of accidental drowning due to a powerful coastal rip current, after helping his wife Cara Jaye to safety.
They were vacationing on the Hawaiian island of Kauai.
Born in Seattle, Wash., on May 18, 1965, Roy grew up in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada; Gaithersburg, Maryland; and Boulder, Colo., where he graduated from Fairview High School in 1983.
He attended Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Ore., graduating in 1987 with a bachelor’s degree in history and international affairs.
He lived in Berkeley, Calif., and France before returning to Seattle in 1989.
Roy married Cara Jaye in 1999. They lived in Bellingham, Wash., where Roy was promotion project manager for SPIE, an international society that promotes the science and application of optical engineering and Cara is an associate professor of art at Western Washington University.
Roy was loved and inspired by all who knew him, for his charm and intellect. Yet he possessed a gentle and unassuming demeanor. Roy and Cara loved to travel.
He was a gourmet cook and loved music and books. He was a published poet and was in the process of writing his first novel. He was addicted to current news and was passionate about issues related to justice and peace.
He was devoted to his family. Roy’s heroism at the end of his life was only matched by his adoration of his wife Cara.
Roy was preceded in death by his younger sister Marcelline, who died in 2002.
In addition to his parents, he is survived by his wife Cara, who is expecting their first child in October; his sister Frederica Overstreet, her husband Gordon Hicks and their children Robert and Olivia of Seattle; his uncles John (Rae) and Wiley Jones (Kathleen) both of Wewoka; aunts Patti Edwards and Veronica Jones, of Wewoka, and Joy Rees of Norman.
Roy’s untimely death also leaves to mourn his beloved first cousins, a host of other cousins, his mother- and two sisters-in-law of Colorado, and many dear friends.
A celebration of Roy’s life will be held in the Wewoka Public Library at 10 am on Saturday, July 28. Two services have been held in Bellingham and one in Seattle.
In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the education fund of Roy and Cara’s unborn child to: The Roy H. Overstreet Memorial Fund, Whatcom Educational Credit Union, PO Box 9750, Bellingham, WA, 98227-9750; or to the Wewoka Public Library.
Frances Ann Owens
Funeral services for lifelong Seminole resident Frances Ann Owens are set for 10:30 a.m. Thursday, May 24, 2007, at the Bowlegs Assembly of God Church, with Rev. Roy Robertson officiating.
Owens died Sunday, May 20, 2007, at the age of 63, at Seminole Medical Center.
She was born March 27, 1944, in Seminole, to Russell Owens and Melba Jolynn (Maloney) Owens.
Owens graduated from Varnum High School in 1962.
She was a member of the Bowlegs Assembly of God Church where she taught children age three to six for 32 years.
She worked for Wrangler in Seminole for 34 years, retiring in 2000.
Owens was raised by her grandmother, Ellen Maloney, who died in 1990.
She is also preceded in death by her parents.
Survivors include four cousins: Charles Casey of Atlanta, Texas; Joyce Wood of Shawnee; Wayman Casey of Jacksonville, Fla.; and Paul Helfer of Shawnee.
Interment will follow the funeral service, and will be at Little Cemetery.
Pallbearers will include Johnny Meeks, Sam Bristow, Glen Siler, Brian Pierce, Bob Morrison, Randy Wassam, and Dave Crabtree.
Services are under the direction of Swearingen Funeral Home of Seminole.
