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Lester A. Day © Enid News and Eagle 04-2001 Submitted by: Jo Aguirre
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The funeral service for Lester A. Day, age 89, will be at 2:00 P.M., Wednesday, May 2, 2001 at Anderson-Burris Funeral Home Chapel in Enid, with Rev. Richard Leonard officiating. Burial will be in Pond Creek Cemetery, under the direction of Anderson-Burris Funeral Home.
Lester A. Day, the original moving force of Pond Creek's Annual Children's Easter Celebration, and referred to thereafter as the "Big Bunny", has left us, just shy of his 90th birthday. He grew to manhood, married and lost his first son to an early death in the depths of the Great Depression. His struggles during those hard times forged a strong and resolute character that served him well during his long and well-lived life.
He married Thelma O. Risley in 1932. After the loss of their first son, they waited almost a decade before they dared try again. They had three children, a daughter and two sons, born during and at the conclusion of World War II. He was declared unfit for military service in the war due to asthma, which constituted a point of irritation toward the U.S. Army forever after.
He was the second son, born June 12, 1911, to James and Sadie Day. His father, a long term Rock Island Railroad employee and Yard Master, moved his family to Pratt, Kansas when Lester was two years old. After graduating from Pratt High School, he lived in Arkansas City and Wichita, Kansas, before moving his family to Pond Creek, Oklahoma, in 1946, where he owned and operated an insurance and real estate office before retiring in 1975.
In, 1959, he married Eleanor Potter, with whom he shared 43 loving years.
He was a past President of the Parent Teachers Association of Pond Creek and the long-term secretary of the Pond Creek School Board. While a Scout Master of Troop 21, Great Salt Plains Council, he had five of his "boys" achieve Eagle Scout status in one year. He was awarded the Order of the Arrow for his leadership. He was a long-term Board Member of the Pond Creek Industrial Development Authority, and Trustee of the Pond Creek Cemetery, Chamber of Commerce and Lion's Club. He was an active and long term member of the Enid Shriner Club, Guthrie Consistory 32nd Degree KCCH, Akdar Temple AAONMS of Tulsa, Oklahoma, Ancient Order of Camel Herders AS-BESTOS Stable #11, Tulsa, Oklahoma, Royal Arch Mason Knight Temples and Life-Time Member of University of Oklahoma Dad's Association.
He is survived by his wife, Eleanor; a daughter, Victoria A. Hanousek of Enid, Oklahoma; two sons, James C. Day of Houston, Texas, and Bruce W. Day of Oklahoma City, OK; nine grandchildren and two great grandchildren.
He was a loving and supportive husband and father. The loss of this good man will constitute a long-term source of grief to his family and friends. "Life's a short summer, man a flower; He dies alas! How soon he dies!"
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