Earl Stanley McBee

Earl Stanley McBee BIRTH 28 Jan 1924 Pittsburg County, Oklahoma, USA DEATH 11 Nov 2016 (aged 92) Oklahoma City, Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, USA BURIAL Oak Hill Memorial Park McAlester, Pittsburg County, Oklahoma, USA PLOT Oakwood MEMORIAL ID 172727587 · View Source

MEMORIAL PHOTOS 0 FLOWERS 0 Earl Stanley McBee and his twin brother Gene were born in the High Hill community southeast of McAlester on January 28, 1924 to George McBee and Anna Loughridge McBee. He died on Veterans Day, November 11, 2016 in Oklahoma City. At an early age Stanley's family moved to North Town where he lived until after he graduated from McAlester High School in May 1941. Like most of his classmates, he was soon called to duty in World War II. But for Stanley the military was not duty, but service. His love of country was marked by many years of active duty and in the Reserves and National Guard. He entered service in November 1942 and trained in Texas, Louisiana and Illinois, first to pursue a dream of becoming a bomber gunner, and then, after his eyesight prevented this, as a propellor mechanic. Beginning in April 1944, he served in the 497th Service Squadron of the 44th Service Group of the U.S. Army Air Corps in the China/India/Burma Theaters until his discharge in March 1946. He returned to military service in the Korean Conflict as a member of Company I, 180th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division in September 1950, receiving the Purple Heart for an injury suffered shortly after he arrived on the front lines, and was discharged in June 1952. He then spent 20 years in the Headquarters Company of the 3rd Battalion, 180th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division, rising to the rank of Major before his final retirement. Other than a brief time working in Tulsa after World War II, Stanley's career was also one of service to the public in the U.S. Postal Service in McAlester. He spent 35 years, first as a postal clerk in the back office and later on the front desk before shifting to become the mail carrier on Rural Route #4, which served his birthplace of High Hill. He retired from the Post Office in 1980. High Hill was the focal point of much of Stanley's life. He was able to fulfill his life-long dream of buying his grandparents' farm there, and in 1970 built a home on the property. He found his greatest joy for thirty years in raising herds of beautiful Hereford and Angus cattle and in raising and working a large vegetable garden, the produce from which he shared with his many friends. He was also an ardent golfer and belonged to the Senior Men's Golf Association at Thundercreek Golf Course. His health eventually forced him to leave the farm, and he returned to his roots and proud heritage in North Town, until failing health forced him to move first to Van Buren House and then to Autumn Leaves of Southwest Oklahoma City, where he was residing when he died. Stanley was a member of High Hill Baptist Church while living on his farm and taught the senior men's Sunday School class for many years. After moving to North Town he joined the First Baptist Church and later Frink Baptist Church and was an active member of both congregations. Stanley was preceded in death by his older sister Marjorie McBee Collins in 1989, by his older brother George "Speedy" McBee in 1999, and by his twin brother Gene McBee in 2005, as well as by his first two wives, Virginia Ross McBee in 1994 and Dorothy McBee in 2000. Funeral services will be held on Tuesday, November 15 at 11 a.m. at Bishop Funeral Service and Crematory at 110 South Third Street in McAlester. Pallbearers will be Tyler, Ross and JD McBee, Tom Winn, Virgil Onan and Jerry Pool. Honorary pallbearers will be the members of Stanley's Sunday School class at Frink Baptist Church. Family Members Parents Photo George M. McBee 1883–1958

Photo Anna Mae Loughridge McBee 1886–1963

Spouses Photo Virginia Ross McBee 1925–1994

Photo Dorothy L. McBee 1924–2000

Siblings Photo Marjory McBee Collins 1918–1989

Photo George McBee 1920–1999

Photo Gene McBee 1924–2005

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