Obit of Ford, William Dennis (f630) - Roger Mills County, Oklahoma Submitted by: Wanda Purcell 11 Jul 2002 Return to Roger Mills Archives: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ok/rogermills/rogermills.html ========================================================================== USGENWEB NOTICE Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm ========================================================================== Surnames: Ford, Lacey, Freeman, Norman, Albright, Smyer, Brothers, Evett William Dennis Ford died in Levelland, Texas, on Tuesday the 6th of December, 1977. Born 15 June 1903 in Oklahoma Territory, the oldes son of William and Maggie Lacey Ford, pioneer farmers in the Kiowa Community, southwest of the present site of Hammon. He spent his childhood and yoth here. He spent two years (1922-23) in California where he became interested in farm irrigation. He returned to Oklahoma to help his father and install his own irrigation system on Little Kowa Creek for truck farm operation. An abuncance of vegetables required a market and Dennis began trucking produce to Pampa and Borger, Texas where oil production was booming. Oilfild work looked more enticing than peddling vegetables from an open truck and Dennis began working in the oil fields. It was at this time in life, 12 March 1927, he married the young school teacher, Frances Freeman, who was teaching in the Meridian Schools, the same girl he had met three years earlier when she taught at the Kiowa School. Dennis, the dreamer, always working and seeking greener pastures, decided California offered better opportunities to him and his bride and in the summer of 1927 he left for California. But disillusioned in working for wages, he returned to Oklahoma in December 1929. He farrmed in Beckham and Custer Counties until his moving to Morton, Cochran County, Texas in December 1933. when that county was opened to agriculture and he was among the first ot initiate irrigation farming in that area. This was the answer to his drams and he spent the remainder of his life there. Dennis was precedede in death by his parents, brother Oscar, and sister Laone. He is survived by his wife, Frances, two son, Frank of Newhall, California, and Bill, of Morton, Texas; three daughters, Margaret Norman, Newhall, Curces, New Mexico; Mary Frances Albrigh of Levelland, Texas; and Glenna Smyer of Austin, Texas; four sisters, Georgia Brothers of Booker, Texas; May Zelle Brothers, of Wichita, Kansas; Lena Ford and Lelia Evett, both of Oklahoma City; an aunt May Lacey, of Jones, Oklahoma; thirteen grandchildren and a host of nieces and nephews. Funeral services were held on Friday, December 9, 1977 at 2:30 p.m. at the Morton Baptist Church with interment in Morton, Texas Cemetery. Cheyenne Star, Cheyenne, OK -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Return to Roger Mills Archives http://www.usgwarchives.net/ok/rogermills/rogermills.html