Bobby Burton Turner

We are here today to remember Bobby Burton Turner, or Papa to the family-our father, grandfather, great-grandfather, brother, and friend. Bob lived ninety-eight years, just two years short of the centennial that he was certain awaited him. Bob was born on September 28, 1927, in Seminole, Oklahoma, the son of Bert Elisha Turner and Johnnie Roberta Beavers Turner. During childhood, Bob's family moved several times-from Seminole, where he was born, to Ragtown, where young Bob remembered father Bert hand-building his own grocery store, to New London Texas, where Bob might have died tragically but for serendipity; to Shawnee, where newly divorced mother Johnnie settled on her own with the kids; and then finally to Holdenville, where Johnnie made a warm and loving home that lasted more than fifty years from an oil field shed on railroad ties. At Ragtown, his father Bert built and operated a small grocery store. The building still stands today, and Bob liked to drive by and point it out. Bob kept many Ragtown stories from his earliest memories. At New London in 1937, Bob survived the New London School Explosion, still the deadliest school disaster in American history. Bob retold a lifelong memory of watching desks slide down a vertical floor as it turned over in the explosion. In his telling, he was late returning from recess and should have already been inside. Bob attended high schools in Shawnee and Holdenville. Late in life, he could still recall names and addresses of classmates from those days and enjoyed giving directions to drive past the family's previous residences and his walking path to the past homes of friends. As a boy in Holdenville, Bob tended the family dairy cow which he believed granted him superior bacterial and virological resistance to later survive Covid at age 93. In October 1945, less than a month after turning eighteen, Bob entered active service in the U.S. Navy where he served past the end of World War II, and then briefly in the Naval Reserves. To enter the service so soon after his birthday, he had to secretly enlist when he was 17. Until the end of her life, his mother retold the story of her shock at his surprise departure for the Navy. Bob's naval pay helped support his mother and little sister in those years. By 1951, Bob was recalled to service during the Korean conflict, making him a two-war veteran. Bob earned the World War II Victory Medal, the American Theater Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Medal, and the Korean Service Medal. He suffered severe hearing damage during his shipboard service off the coast of Korea that would heavily affect his quality of life in later years. After the Navy, Bob earned a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Oklahoma A&M College. At Oklahoma A&M he met and married Mary Ann Moore in June 1953. They would remain a couple until parted by Mary Ann's death in 2011. Their first son was born in Stillwater before Bob graduated. After graduation, Bob and Mary Ann moved to Tulsa for Bob's first job as an engineer with Public Service of Oklahoma. Four more kids followed in rapid succession. Soon Bob accepted employment at American Airlines, where he stayed for 29 years to retire as a senior project engineer. In addition to American's in-house commercial airline engineering, he contributed to development of Boeing's 747, the British-French Concord SST Supersonic Transport, and NASA's Space Shuttle. In 1963, as more kids came along Bob and Mary Ann moved to a bedrooms-for-everyone project house that had been built around 1920 but never updated. For the next eight years, the kids grew up immersed in every aspect of home renovation, as Bob transformed the uninsulated, unheated, underwired structure into an elegant home in a stately neighborhood. The lessons and skills absorbed by the kids, who knew of no other way to live, were impactful and long lasting. In 1971 Bob relocated the family to Southern California for three years in order to join American Airlines' subcontract team providing design services for NASA's Space Shuttle. After returning to Tulsa from SoCal, Bob and Mary Ann acquired and operated several rental properties when he decided that investing in real estate paid better than aircraft engineering. Managing their rental property turned into a second career for Bob, and a two-decade shared husband-wife business venture for them both. In the 1980s, Bob learned to fly and became a licensed Visual Flight Rules private pilot, flying his own vintage Cessna 172 around eastern Oklahoma for several years. In his last years long after the flying days were over, every time he passed the turn to Harvey Young Airport he would retell the story of the time he found his way to land in heavy fog and near darkness by following the glow of street lamps through the fog- VFR pilots aren't supposed to be flying in fog or after dark. By 1996, Bob and Mary Ann had moved into their final home, a house on acreage with room for extended family and guests, many domestic and wild creatures, and a 9,000-square-foot workshop. The workshop provided space for projects, antique cars, memorabilia, and property management paraphernalia. Over the course of 20 years, the workshop served as a gathering place for children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren to work on projects of all types, from cars and boats to trebuchets and snapping turtle traps. He loved to work with his kids and grandkids, who by then knew him as Papa. Sharing projects in the shop was one of the ways he inspired his progeny and connected best with his extended family. With the space provided by the large workshop, Bob soon became active in the antique car community, acquiring a 1914 Model T, a 1913 Buick, a 1936 Ford, and other special interest autos. For many years the extended family drove his 100-year-old cars on lengthy annual driving club tours around various regional destinations. When taking cars that old on highways for extended distances, breakdowns were inevitable. Quirks, problems, and delays were non-stop, and endurance was tested. The entire touring family learned patience, acceptance, real time problem solving, and a keen appreciation for modern cars. Bob was a long-time member of the Horseless Carriage Club of America, the Model T Ford Club of America, and the Early Ford V-8 Club of America. Bob and Mary Ann played Bridge as a couple with Mary Ann's Bridge Club continuously through their years together. He played ukulele, and sometimes performed with the Over Fifty group at Christ the King Catholic Church. He kept a lifelong affinity for dominoes and chess, always hoping for someone to play with him. Bob was a lifelong learner who loved history, engineering, science, and technology. He was an avid reader with teetering piles of dog-eared reading materials to the end, asking for his newest issue of Scientific American in the hospital. Bob is survived by his sister, Nancy Miller of Bethany; sons Jeffrey Turner and wife Patricia of Norman, and Jim Turner; daughter Julia Ann Nelson and husband, Curtis Brown of Tulsa; sister-in-law Cathie Moore of Jackson, MS; grandchildren Ryan Collins and wife Brooke Baldeschwiler-Collins of Brooklyn, NY; Deidra Ann Duncan and husband Olen of Fort Meyers, FL; Alexis Bejarano and husband Alan, Chloe Turner, Jack Turner and Jennifer Brown all of Tulsa; Kari Gary and husband Peter Bagwell of Athens, GA; and great-grandchildren Kimberly Anne, Kaleb, and Kylie Nelson, Gemma and Ethan Duncan, Sabrina Bejarano, and Kayson, Kamden, Kilian and Kane Brady, his wife Laney and their daughter, Papa's only great-great grandchild, Brylie Ann. He is also survived by his nieces, nephews, and their many families. He was preceded in death by his wife Mary Ann, parents Bert Turner and Johnnie Lawyer; two half-brothers Larry Turner and Winfred Turner; brothers-in-law Harold Miller, Pat Moore and wife Joan, and Thomas Moore; two sons John Christopher Turner and Joseph David Turner; two daughters-in-law Pamela Turner and Cherrie Turner; and three grandchildren Stephanie Anne Nelson, Thomas Nelson, and Jon Nelson. We are grateful for every one of the ninety-eight years we were given with him. Fitzgerald Ivy Chapel, 918-585-1151

Bobby Burton Turner

September 28, 1927 - December 8, 2025