Rogers Co. Obit for: Merle Amos Best 
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http://www.usgwarchives.net/ok/rogers/rogers.htm
Rogers County Archivist: Bill Cook, billcook44@aol.com
Submitted to the Rogers County Oklahoma Archives 
Date: 3/23/2003 by: Bill Cook, billcook44@aol.com
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Merle Amos Best
3/11/2003

Funeral service for Merle Amos Best were at 2 p.m., Tuesday, March 11, 
2003 at Calvary Baptist Church, Inola, with Rev. Thom Duncan officiating.

Burial followed at Highland Cemetery in Inola, under the direction of the 
Inola Funeral Home.

Merle passed from this life to be with his Lord, March 7, 2003 at the age 
of 81.

He was born May 11, 1921 to Grover and Maggie Smiley Best in Minneapolis, 
Kan. He was the fifth child born to this union. When Merle was 13 months 
old, his mother died. Merle was then reared by his aunt and uncle, Kate and 
Purdy McDaris, a sister of Grover. Merle attended Maple Grove grade school 
in Inola and graduated from Inola High School in 1939.

Merle married his high school sweetheart Gertrue ?Blondie? Ailene Bowers in 
Vinita on July 27, 1940. Merle served his country in the Navy Seabees on the 
island of Okinawa. Merle was a rancher-farmer and was a plasterer by trade; 
his work can be admired throughout Oklahoma. Merle was a charter member and 
Deacon of Calvary Baptist Church of Inola and was a member of the Masonic 
Lodge in Claremore. His family remembers him as a loving and devoted husband, 
father, grandfather and, most importantly, a servant of God. Merle was a kind 
and witty person with a great sense of humor and loved to make everyone laugh.

Merle is survived by his wife, Blondie of the home; four children: son, Virgil 
and Loretta Best and three daughters, Pat and Bob Mootry, and Sandra and Mike 
Bynum, all of Inola, and Merlene and Butch Bocock of Catoosa; 12 grandchildren; 
24 great-grandchildren; one great-great-grandchild; two sisters, Lois Ronnekamp 
of Tulsa and Eunice Ross of Tahlequah; brother, Joe Best of Skiatook; and a host 
of distant relatives and close friends all of whom will miss him.

He was preceded in death by his parents, brothers, Sam and Paul Best; and 
sister, Ruth Krause.




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Transcribed from the Claremore Progess Newspaper, we sincerely thank them
for allowing us to post these obits on the Rogers Co., OK USGenwebpages
http://www.claremoreprogress.com/
copyright c 2002-2003, by webmaster Rogers Co. Archives Bill Cook
billcook44@aol.com
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