2008 area notable deaths

December 31, 2008 09:42 pm

— The following is a list of notable area residents who died in 2008:

January
10: Jim Russell, 69, of Jim Russell’s Mobile Homes.
21: Betty Barger, 86, dance instructor.
22: John L. Cohea, 80, retired banker, county commissioner.
30: George Leslie Lange, 86, retired owner of Teel Laundry.

February
4: Opio Toure, 53, Muskogee native and former state representative.
14: Carolyn Embry Wade, 63, Muskogee NAACP president, real estate broker.

May
6: D.C. Minner, 73, local blues legend.
19: Dr. Virgil Matthews, longtime Muskogee physician. Served 32 years on school board.
26: Retired U.S. Court Clerk Lewis Vaughn.

June
1: Judy Kay Brewster, 55, wife of Muskogee businessman Mike Brewster, died in Topeka, Kan. after being run over in the parking lot on her way to her vehicle.
14: James C. Jenkins, 51, a VA Medical Center employee was critically injured when hit in the same incident that killed Judy Brewster on June 1.

July
7: Clem McSpadden, 82, a grand nephew of Will Rogers, was best known for his smooth announcing voice at rodeos across the country. McSpadden was the first to serve two terms as president pro tem of the Oklahoma Senate and later served in Congress.

September
10: Eddie Crowder, 77, former Muskogee resident who spent nearly a half-century at the University of Colorado as a football coach, athletic director and mentor to generations of other coaches. Crowder played quarterback at Muskogee Central High School and helped win the state championship in 1948. Also was quarterback at the University of Oklahoma under Bud Wilkinson.

October
11: Jim Norman, 86, longtime Muskogee resident and business owner.
28: Tom Parker, 64, former executive director of Lake Area United Way.
28: Lloyd Payton, 75, longtime attorney.

November
26: William Eugene “Gene” Beach, 90, of Tahlequah. Former Muskogee High School agriculture teacher and Indian Capital Vo-Tech Superintendent.
A 1936 graduate of Westville High School, Beach was a farm reporter for KVOO radio in the early 1940s. He came to Muskogee’s Central High School in 1949 and helped establish the vocational agriculture and FFA programs.
Beach became superintendent of the Indian Capital Vo-Tech School, opening the Muskogee Indian Capital campus in 1970 and the Stilwell and Sallisaw campuses in 1972. He stayed with Indian Capital until 1977.
30: Faye James, 65, office manager of the Fuller Agency for many years. She became an advocate for the Kelly B. Todd Cerebral Palsy Center when her daughter, Melissa, was diagnosed with the disease. James and Todd’s mother are recognized as founders of the center.

December
3: Rubye McGill Carter, 72, taught at Muskogee Public Schools for 32 years Carter graduated from Manual Training High School in 1953 and started teaching in 1966 at Central High School and was one of the first African American teachers at the segregated high school.