Funeral services will be held for Oliver Robert Sample, 87, of Cement at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, November 26, 2011, in the Assembly of God Church in Cement with Kim Hayes officiating.
Oliver Robert Sample was born on February 24, 1924, in Bennington, Oklahoma, to John Clifford Sample and Rhoda Ellen Dallas Sample. He died on Wednesday, November 23, 2011, in Lawton.
Oliver grew up in Bennington and attended public school there. He proudly served in the United States Army Air Corps from October 1942 to January 1947, first as an aerial gunner and later as a cook. He married the love of his life and wife for more than sixty-two years, Donna Stout, on September 19, 1949, in Covington, Oklahoma. The newlyweds moved to Seiling, Oklahoma, and started their family that would eventually include five children.
The family later moved to Enid where he worked at Bond Bread until moving to Chickasha in 1963. Oliver opened Wide-A-Wake Grocery and operated the business from 1963-1973, at which time the family moved to Cement where he would open the Grocery & Grill that he operated until retirement. He moved to Chickasha in 2008 and then to the V.A. Nursing Home in Lawton in 2009.
Oliver served as mayor and fire chief of the volunteer fire department while living in Cement. He was a member of the Elks Lodge and Eagles Lodge. His hobbies included gardening, hunting and cooking. He especially enjoyed spending time with his grandchildren.
He was preceded in death by: both parents, five brothers, two sisters, four sisters-in-law, and one son-in-law, Harold King.
Survivors include: wife, Donna Sample; four daughters, Carolyn King of Chickasha, Peggy Riley and husband Wickie of Amber, Tarri Carpenter and husband Les of Cement, and Tena Jordan and husband Jeff of Rush Springs; one son, Robert Sample and wife Debi of Yukon; one brother, Verlin Sample and wife Joyce of Sherman, Texas; one sister, Arline Epperson and husband Joe of Chickasha; fourteen grandchildren; twenty-five great-grandchildren; one great-great-grandchild; and many nieces and nephews.
Interment will be in the Cement Cemetery under the direction of Ferguson Funeral Home.