John A Ketcher

© Tahlequah Daily Press Tahlequah, Oklahoma October 20, 2011

Submitted by: Jo Aguirre

Services for John Ketcher, 89, of Tahlequah, will be held at 1 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 21, at The Place Where They Play, Sequoyah High School Gym.

Officiating will be Rev. Jerry Hensen and Rev. Lee Brewer. Serving as pallbearers are grandsons Aaron Ketcher, Lynn Ketcher, Ave Ketcher, Daniel Brewer, John Sankey, and

Online condolences may be left at tahlequahfuneral. com.

 His family will receive friends 6-8 p.m. on Thursday at Green Country Funeral Home. The family suggests making a donation to the Sequoyah High School Scholarship Fund, the Wounded Warrior Fund, or the Cherokee Nation Historical Society in lieu of flowers.

Deputy Chief Ketcher was born May 5, 1922, in Yonkers, N.Y., the son of Frank and Sally (Downing) Ketcher. He passed from this life Oct. 17, 2011, in Tahlequah.

John attended Sequoyah Indian Training School near Tahlequah, served with the U.S. Navy during World War II in the Pacific on the U.S.S. New Orleans. After the war, he returned to Tahlequah and attended Northeastern State University, receiving a bachelor's degree in education. He later completed a master's degree in sociology.

He worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs as an arts and crafts specialist at the Choctaw Agency in Philadelphia, Miss., as well as other BIA agencies, where he established crafts cooperatives.

His career with the BIA took him to Haskell Institute (now University) in Lawrence, Kan., where he was guidance counselor for 10 years, and to El Reno, where he was director of students at Concho Indian School.

From 1967 to 1974, he was an arts and crafts specialist with the BIA Tahlequah Agency, abd he then transferred to the Muskogee Area Office to serve the Five Civilized Tribes until his retirement in 1979.

John was elected to the Cherokee Tribal Council in June 1983, and elected during his first term to preside over the council as its president and deputy chief to succeed Wilma Mankiller when Principal Chief Ross O. Swimmer resigned to become assistant secretary of Indian affairs, Department of Interior.

Unity and economic development were John's top priorities.

Preceding him in death are his parents, Frank and Sally Downing Ketcher; his first wife, Mildred Justice Ketcher; and his stepson, Robert Davis.

He is survived by his wife, Colleen (Talbott) Ketcher of Tahlequah; John Ketcher Jr. and wife Dalene of Tahlequah; Gary Ketcher and wife Petra of Bushyhead; Rick Ketcher and wife Tracey of Pueblo, Colo.; Cherry Davis and husband Kevin Steele of Gig Harbor, Wash.; Susan Brewer and husband Lee of Hudson Oaks, Texas; Matthew Davis and wife Julie of Tahlequah; adopted daughter Selena Gervais and husband Justin of Prairie Grove, Ark.; grandchildren Ave, Anjali, Aaron, Lynn, Sarah, Leslie, John Robert, Rachel, Daniel, Amy, Quinton, Ethan, Ravyn, Matthew, Austin, Shayla and Maya; and great-grandchildren John III, Spencer, Lily, Max, Lexi and Mila.

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