Donald J. Mathis

© Cherokee Messenger and Republican

04-29-2004

Submitted by: Jo Aguirre

© Glenn

The funeral for Donald J. Mathis, 77, was at 10:30a.m., Friday, April 23, 2004, at the Cherokee United Methodist Church. The Rev. Jim Edmison officiated, assisted by Kim Ellis. Burial was in the Cherokee Municipal Cemetery under the direction of the Goodwin Funeral Home. Military graveside rites were conducted.

He was born Oct. 12, 1926, on a farm southwest of Beaver, OK. to Jesse and Merle Allman Mathis and passed away April 20, 2004 at St. Mary's Hospital in Enid, OK.

He lived on the farm until he was 16, then moved into the town of Beaver when his father's health failed. It was on this farm and ranch that he learned the love of the land, cattle and horses. He lived there through the depression and dust bowl days.

Donald attended all 12 years in the Beaver schools, graduating in the spring of 1944. He was active in music, basketball, baseball and 4-H Club. He enrolled at Northwestern University at Alva, OK. in the fall of 1944 where he attended until drafted into the Army March 9, 1945. He was sent to Japan in January 1946 and served in the occupation forces in the offices of General Headquarters of the Pacific Operation. He returned to the U.S. in February 1947.

While attending Northwestern, at Alva, he met Ruth Taylor of Cherokee, OK. They were married Sept. 1, 1945, in Lawton, OK. Ruth's father helped them start a farming operation four miles southwest of Cherokee. They lived there for 13 years, then moved six miles west of Cherokee in 1960, where he was living at the time of his death.

In 1954, they became adoptive parents of a son, David, and in 1965 a two-year-old daughter, Nancy, completed the family.

He worked as a custom harvester through Kansas and Nebraska for 16 years. From 1956 to the spring of 1966 he worked for C.H. Guernsey Engineering Company, working through the winter months as a member of a survey crew. He then operated a custom hay operation in the Cherokee area. He later worked for the Alfalfa County Assessor doing data collecting.

He was a member of the Cherokee United Methodist Church. He worked to improve his church home by helping build the educational building, serving on different committees, was chairman of ushers, on the official board several years and was a trustee several times, the last time as chairman.

He was a member of the Alfalfa County Farm Bureau and served on different committees through the years.

Surviving are his wife, Ruth; his children, David and Janice Mathis, Cherokee, OK., and Nancy and Dean Hutchinson of Agra, OK.; five grandchildren, Christie Jayne, David Mathis, Jess Mathis, Justin Hutchinson and Jessica Hutchinson; five great-grandchildren, Jerid, Jake, Dallas, Zach and Jordan.

He was preceded in death by his parents, one granddaughter, Michelle Mathis, and two sisters, Donna Mae Cothran and Jo Nell White. Memorials may be given to Oklahoma Medical Research Heart Fund through the funeral home.

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