LORANCE EDWIN “TEX” SIMRING, was born in Stillwater November 16, 1930 of William H. “Bill” Simring and Goldie Jane McKnight Simring, both have preceded him along with one brother, Harold Simring, an OSU graduated, that was a top executive with General Electric Co in Washington D. C, at the time of his unfortunate auto accident. Lorance is survived by a daughter, Susan Bode of Stillwater, cousins; Emma Lee Hart Strode of Tulsa, Don Macy of Norman, Mary Jo Macy Holmes Frandsen of Idaho Falls, Idaho, and Elsa Macy Brownson Koons of Jacksonville, Fl and Elaine Cook Binkley of Arlington, TX and Wendell Cook of Broken Arrow.
Lorance was born in Stillwater, while his mother was teaching English at Oklahoma A & M College.
As a young boy he attended elementary schools near Stillwater. At an early age the family lived in the small community of Mehan (S.E. OF STILLWATER) where his parents had a combination General Store, AUTO REPAIR GARAGE, BLACKSMITH and GRAIN MILLING COMPANY.
His family later moved to Ripley, OK where they bought the old downtown hotel. Lorance helped his famlily run a restaurant and skating rink in Ripley while he attended Ripley schools. When Lorance and his older brother were ready for High School, the family moved back to Stillwater so the two boys could get a better education and go on to college. His father had a Machine Shop and Lawnmower & Saw Sharpening Business located in the back of their family home at 606 S. Ramsey. This address was the home of his mother’s family, James Wiley McKnight.
Tex and his entire family are heirs of “officially registered in 2007” as “State of Oklahoma Centurions Family”, because his grandfather “James Wiley McKnight” and grandmother “Susan Odella McKnight” staked out and claimed a 160 acre farm one mile south and one mile west of Agra in the “Run of Lincoln County in 1891. His grandmother was Susan Odella McQuithia, of the McQuithia family of Stillwater.
Lorance was a DeMolay in Stillwater, and he was proud of his parent’s Masonic Lodge activates. His father was a 34th degree mason and was a tutor to many people in the entire Guthrie Consistory of the Masonic Lodge in helping them to becoming 32nd or 33rd degree Masons. Both his mother and father were active in Easter Star, in Cushing, Guthrie and Stillwater.
Tex, as he preferred to be known, served a short enlistment in the Navy, and then returned to Stillwater where he was active in the Oklahoma 45th National Guard. The 45th was activated during the Korean War, when he served in the Army until he received a medical discharged because of injury.
“Tex” lived in Stillwater most of his life, working for a tree trimming company, and the State Highway Department crew worker. During his semi- retirement, he worked for Century 21 “Global Real Estate” in Stillwater, as a sign installer and was a member of The First Christian Church of Stillwater, more recently he attended Sunnybrook Christian Church of Stillwater.
Upon retirement, Tex was a resident of Roxie Webber Housing of Stillwater and Cimarron Plaza of Cushing for several years.
Due to his recent illness he has lived in Stillwater and Cushing Nursing Homes. He resided at the Rest Haven Nursing Home, 310 N. Central, Cushing at the time of his death on February 21, 2009.
He will be interned at 2:00 p.m., Friday, February 27, 2009 with the rest of his family in Osage Cemetery South of Agra, only one-half mile from the land first settled by his grandparents in 1891.
Services have been entrusted to the Palmer Marler Funeral Home in Cushing.
Condolences and an online guestbook are available at www.palmermarlerfh.com.
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