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OBITUARY INDEX Crawford County Arkansas Genealogy Trails Please send your Crawford County obituaries to be included here to this email.
SUSAN ALAMO, 56, FOUNDER OF OZARK MOUNTAIN MINISTRY, DIES Susan Alamo, whose preaching to Hollywood street people in 1968 led to establishment of the nationally known Tony and Susan Alamo Christian Foundation, died Thursday at Oral Roberts' City of Faith Hospital in Tulsa, Okla. Mrs. Alamo, who was 56 years old, had battled cancer for several years. Today Mrs. Alamo's body was at the multimillion-dollar foundation headquarters that she and her husband, Tony, built in the Ozark Mountains on a ridge overlooking the town of Dyer, Ark., where she was born as Edith Opal Horn. Only foundation members were allowed in the headquarters, and funeral arrangements were not announced. The Alamos' Pentecostal ministry, which stressed biblical teachings and personal experience of the Holy Spirit, attracted hundreds of young people, including drug addicts and runaways, in the late 1960's and early 1970's. Started Dozens of Businesses The Tony and Susan Alamo Christian Foundation began in the Los Angeles area, but moved its headquarters to Arkansas in 1976, when the Alamos purchased large amounts of property in the state and began opening retail and service businesses, ranging from a large restaurant to cement, car repair, grocery, recording and clothing operations. They also built a large church at Dyer, a community of fewer than 700 people, and purchased motels and apartment houses throughout the area for their members. Mrs. Alamo always declined to disclose the number of people in her organization. Shortly after coming to Arkansas, foundation members became targets for "deprogrammers" who, operating on behalf of parents of young adults in the Alamo organization, attempted to return the followers to established religious denominations. Mrs. Alamo denied that her church was a cult and successfully blocked the deprogrammers and parents in court. In one of her last interviews, Mrs. Alamo explained why the foundation established dozens of business enterprises in California, Arizona, Arkansas and Tennessee. "We started out preaching the gospel to people who were alone on drugs and in all sorts of trouble," she said. "We originally thought they would go into established churches. But we quickly found that many of those churches didn't know how to deal with these young people. Some actually were afraid of them. So we started businesses to provide food and clothing and housing for them. We have never begged or taken one red cent from the Federal Government." Preached on Television For a number of years, Mr. and Mrs. Alamo syndicated an evangelical television program on which she preached, Mr. Alamo sang and foundation members told their personal experiences. More recently, the foundation established a day-care center and a private school for members' children at its headquarters. Currently, the Alamo Foundation is the subject of an Department of Labor suit, filed in 1979, charging that foundation members working in foundation businesses have not been paid minimum wages and overtime. The Government says that at least $15.5 million in back wages are involved. The lawsuit was scheduled to go to trial last week but was delayed because of Mrs. Alamo's illness. The foundation contends its members were volunteers and associates in various enterprises. It has called for support from other religious groups, saying the Federal action encroaches on the free exercise of religion. The Alamo Foundation pays taxes on its diverse business operations. Mrs. Alamo always insisted that everything she and her husband had done was intended to provide for their members' future lives. At the Arkansas headquarters, for example, the foundation constructed and furnished dormitories, apartment houses and modern single-family homes for its members. "God wants his children to go first class," Mrs. Alamo once said. Source: New York Times, The (NY) - April 11, 1982. Oklahoma City, OK--WYCLIF DAWSON, age 88, of 725 SW 25, died Wednesday. He was born in Rudy, Arkansas and came with his parents who settled near Carnegie on a farm drawn in the Caddo-Comanche Homestead Lottery. He was a graduate of Carnegie High School and attended Oklahoma University in Norman. During World War I he was employed by the Federal Government in Washington, D.C. He later returned to Oklahoma where he was a public school teacher and a high school principal. He reentered the Federal Government Service in 1930 with the Internal Revenue from which he retired after 35 years of service. He was a member of the Capitol Hill Christian Church in Oklahoma City. He is survived by his wife Nellie of the home, two sisters Mrs. Leila Frazier of Oklahoma City, and Mrs. Loumae Davis of Chevy Chase, Maryland, one brother Hiram Dawson of Seattle, Washington, and a number of nieces and nephews. Services will be Friday at 2 P.M. in The Chapel Of The Chimes at Capitol Hill Funeral Home. Conducted by Dr. George R. Davis of Washington, D.C., with interment in Memorial Park Cemetery. Memorials may be made to The Medical Research Foundation in Oklahoma City. --Source: Daily Oklahoman, The (Oklahoma City, OK) - November 5, 1982.
CHARLIE HOMER KERBY, 85, departed this life on Sunday, September 18, 2005, at his Tulsa home as the result of complications from Alzheimer's disease. Born October 5, 1919 in White County, TN, Charlie was the son of a sharecropper (one of five children) who lived in Cove City, Crawford County, AR, during the Great Depression years. Charlie told of making railroad cross ties by hand to pay for setting up housekeeping, when he married Ruth Russell of Natural Dam, AR, in 1936. The couple moved to Tulsa in 1942. Charlie worked for the Mid Continent Refinery and for various manufacturers of oil field equipment. Later in his career, he was a Quality Control Inspector for engineering firms, spending two years on assignment in Japan before his retirement. Charlie and Ruth were married for 56 years before her death in 1992. He later remarried to life-long family friend, Mary (Betty) Lee in 1994. A fun-loving, people-person, Charlie was a craftsman in steel and wood, and was Mr. Fix-it for a host of friends and family members over the years. Many extended family members recall staying with the Kerbys for weeks or months during transition times or when they needed a helping hand. Charlie was dedicated to his church throughout his lifetime until being stricken with Alzheimer's Disease in 1997. He is survived by: his wife, Betty; a son, Jim and his wife, Mary; a daughter, Norma and her husband, Dan Collins; a brother, J.T. Kerby of Tulsa; a sister, Mamie Jones of Susanville, CA; six grandchildren; 16 great-grandchildren; four great-great-grandchildren; and innumerable friends. Funeral service is scheduled for 10 a.m., Wednesday, September 21, at Woodlake Assembly of God Church in Tulsa with interment at Floral Haven Cemetery. --Tulsa World (OK) - September 20, 2005. MRS. MARGARET L. MAXWELL, 87, passed away January 18, 2006 in Jacksonville, FL. She is the widow of Howard Maxwell, both formerly of Crawford County, AR and residents of Denver and Longmont, CO. She is survived by a daughter, Darlene Benson, and granddaughter, Laura Love, both of Jacksonville, FL, and grandson, Bryan Love of Copiague, N.Y., two great grandchildren, Jerrod Scott and Myranda Love of Jacksonville; also a sister, Lucille Maxwell of Van Buren, AR. A memorial service will be held in Colorado at a later date. Eternity Funeral Home, Jacksonville, Florida. --Rocky Mountain News (CO) - January 21, 2006. Oklahoma City, OK--DAISY B. WEESE,
age 86, of OKC, born June 16, 1904 in Crawford County (Dyer) AR. to
William Elijah and Annamariah Morse. She was a homemaker. Daisy married
Harvey Lee Weese Dec. 25, 1921 in Crawford County, AR. He preceded her
in death Dec. 10, 1972. She was an OKC resident since 1956 coming from
Arcadia. Member of Methodist Church in Dyer, AR. Her hobbies included
gardening, quilting and cooking. Passed away March 7, 1991, Cushing,
Ok. Survivors are son, Jewel Henry Weese of Edmond; daughter, Jacqueta
Marrs, Cushing; 1 grandchild, 2 great grandchildren, many nieces and
nephews. Services 1:00 p.m. Monday at the Edwards Van-Alma Funeral Home
Chapel in Van Buren, AR. --Daily Oklahoman, The (Oklahoma City,
OK) - March 9, 1991.
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