Ellis Junior "Bunny" Blackshear

© Cheyenne Star, Cheyenne, OK

Submitted by: Wanda Purcell

Ellis Junior "Bunny" Blackshear, died Thursday, January 18, 1996, in the Sayre Memorial Hospital.

Funeral services were held at 2 p.m. on Saturday, January 20, 1996 at the Sayre United Methodist Church with Rev. Clarence Wing and Rev. Sheila Combs-Francis officiating. Burial was in the Sayre-Doxey Cemetery under the direction of Martin Funeral Home of Sayre.

Mr. Blackshear, the son of William "Blackie" and James Lottie Dickerson Blackshear, was born on May 1, 1937, in Bonham, Texas.

He was raised in Texas and western Oklahoma and attended school at Ocina and Carter, Oklahoma, and Channing, Texas.

He served his country in the U.S. Army and was stationed in Germany. After his discharge, he attended welding school in Amarillo, where he lived for a short time before moving to Sayre.

He married Margaret Marie Bingham Griffin on April 17, 1970, in Sayre, where they made their home, and they had two children, Sonya and Roger.

Mr. Blackshear was a welder, carpenter and heavy equipment operator.

They moved to the Houston, Texas, area for a short time before moving to Cheyenne in 1979, where they owned and operated a metal building construction business, J. B. and the Bears, from 1980 until 1986.

After his wife died in June 1986, he moved to Sayre to make his home, where he had lived since. He married Betty Jean Mayfield in 1989 and they had two children, T. J. and Jammie. After his retirement, he often helped his daughter, Sonya, at The Sayre Journal on Wednesday {mail and insert day} until ill health restrained him from doing so.

He was an excellent guitar player and played with several bands when he was a young man. He also played at Mickey Gilley's club in Houston.

He was an avid crossword fan and loved to play dominoes, especially the game "Shoot the Moon."

He was preceded in death by his mother and father, his first wife, Marie; his stepfather, Zollie Westmoreland; two brothers, William Blackshear and Stanley Westmoreland; a sister, Sara Blackshear; and one granddaughter, Lisa Marie Sandoval.

He is survived by his wife, Betty, of Sayre home; two daughters, Sonya Blackshear Sandoval and her husband, Edward, of Sayre, and Jammie, of the home; two sons, Roger Blackshear and his wife, Crissy, of Elk City, and T. J. of the home; two grandsons, Zac Sandoval and Destin Blackshear; his stepmother, Mable and Leroy Smith of Denison, Texas; six brothers, Sid, Bill, Danny and Michael Blackshear, all of Denison, Glen Blackshear of Durant, Oklahoma, and Jim Dickerson of Sayre; two sisters, Linda Still of Denison and Jean Tadlock of Borger, Texas; several nieces, nephews, aunts and uncles.