FATHER'S CENTURY BIRTHDAY - JUNE 30, 1908 - JULY 19, 1998

My father, Alfred (Al) was born on June 30, 1908, in Tupelo, OK, seven months after Oklahoma became a state on November 16, 1907. Had he lived, he would have been 100 years old today. It is inconceivable to think of him as a 100 year old man.

Dad was the eldest son of eleven children, eight daughters and three sons born to Ben and Sarah. They also raised two grandchildren after their daughter died. Soon after my father was born, the family moved to Stonewall, OK where a few of my father's siblings chose to remain, marry, raise their families and die. Other siblings chose to move to bigger cities where jobs were available, and my father was one of those who chose to leave. He is pictured here with his father.

After marriage to my mother, Esther, on December 6, 1929, who lived in a nearby community, my father and mother moved to Oklahoma City.
They lived and raised their three children, Howard, myself (Peggy), and Janice in Oklahoma City.

He was a hard-working man, and achieved a lot in his lifetime for not having graduated from high school or college, having finished the 7th grade. He always worked in the trucking business, first as a dock hand, a driver, a dock foreman, and retiring as a sales manager for Western Gillette Trucking Company.

Dad served his country in the 324th Army Air Forces Base Unit and became a civilian again on April 8, 1946.















My parents resided in Oklahoma City most of their adulthood, but moved to Edmond for a few years before my dad retired. After his retirement, my parents chose to move back to their roots in Stonewall. He became a master tomato grower and took great pride in his garden, spending all his free time cultivating the biggest and juiciest tomatoes in Stonewall.





















His only son, Howard, preceded him in death on May 12, 1997. He lived to see his five grandchildren born (Keith, Debbie, Scott, Darlene, and Sara), and three of his four great-grandchildren born (Ryan, Rayna, and Brittanee). The fourth great-grandchild (Steffanee) was born after his death.

After my mother's death in 1981, my father lived alone until he chose to enter the Sulphur Veterans Center to live out the remainder of his life. He reached his 90th birthday, one of his goals in life, and shortly after, became ill and was transferred by ambulance to the Oklahoma City Veterans Center, where he died on July 19, 1998.


Dad at "twenty something."






Today we wish to honor the memory of our father, the patriarch of our extended family, on what would have been his "Century" birthday.