Leroy Wood
From:
Oklahoma, USA
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Posted 22 Sep 2024 3:40 pm |
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As written by his daughter Karen:
Leroy Mell Wood (Woody) was born May 24, 1932, to Ishmael Odell and Maudie Veva Wood of Reydon, OK. He was the youngest of three children; his brothers Odell Wood and Billy Dale Wood, both predeceased him. In his early years the family moved from Reydon to manage a large ranch/farm in Logan County, and he attended school at Rock Mound, a historic location between Guthrie and Edmond. He graduated from Edmond High School. He met his future wife, Jo Frances (Gibson), through co-workers at Tinker Air Force Base, where they both started working after high school. It was love at first sight and they were married on Dec. 2, 1951, at the Marshall Street Church of Christ in Midwest City. Immediately upon returning from their honeymoon, they were one of 4 or 5 Midwest City couples that then planted the Del City Church of Christ, where they have been faithful members for 73 years. Before their first anniversary, duty called, and he was sent to Korea to serve in the war. After returning from service, they started regular life again as a newlywed couple. They raised two children, Karen Farrell (Paul) and Kevin Wood (Christie). He delighted in his grandkids, Madison Banks and wife Sarah, Brian Wood, and Ciarra Wood. In the last 5 years since moving to Edmond, they primarily worshiped at the New Hope Church of Christ in Edmond with daughter Karen and son-in-law Paul. However, they remained legacy members of Del City with “dual citizenship” at New Hope. As a testament to their influence through the years, several members of New Hope had been members at Del City at some point in the past and all knew and loved Woody and Jo.
Any time you asked him what his priorities in life were, he was crystal clear: God, Jo Frances and family, serving the church and leading his family to be faithful to the Lord’s church. He served faithfully through the years as deacon, song leader for over 30 yrs, Bible class teacher, small group leader, Mission Committee member, visitation committee, Meals on wheels, and anything that needed to be done next at church. Our home was often the gathering place for youth group teens or college students for many years. His Godly example never wavered as he loved and cared for so many different groups. His example of a Godly husband was rock solid for 73 yrs. Their song was “Just Look At Us” (If you want to see how true love should be, then just look at us)
His beloved hobbies were music & Lake Tenkiller adventures. As a teenager, he began listening to steel guitar music on the radio and decided he wanted to play. He was blessed with perfect pitch, amazing musical talent, and could play whatever he heard. He took an old plywood guitar that his brother had found and retrofitted it into a lap steel. As the story goes, he broke the handle off one of his mom’s kitchen knives so he could use it as a slide bar. That did not go over well with her, but she laughed about it later, as he soon ended up playing on the radio and later TV instead of listening to someone else. Lake Tenkiller was our home away from home for most of our lives as Woody and Jo joined with several young couples from Del City and basically spent every vacation moment together there camping, fishing, and most of all skiing and eating homemade ice cream. What always grounded the trips were the outdoor worship services that grew into surprising crowds as people heard the singing and brought folding chairs over to come join in. We learned from day one that going to the lake did NOT mean skipping church. It was an amazing time of worship together with friends who were like family.
He retired from his career at Tinker Air Force Base as a computer analyst at age 55. We always said he was “computers before computers were cool”. His aptitude toward learning computer programming technology as it was coming of age was as amazing as his musical ability. He was still organizing an internet steel guitar forum and Jam session where musicians would come from far and near to play until a few years ago.
He lived his whole life to serve God and take care of others. Now we rejoice as he has gone on to his reward in the arms of Jesus. He has finished the race and is victorious through Christ his savior. |
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