|
| |
Lewis L. Ferguson © Trout Funeral Home 08-2017 Submitted by: Jo Aguirre
|
Lewis L. (Lew) Ferguson, devoted husband and father, dedicated and award-winning journalist, died of heart failure on Thursday, August 24, at an Oklahoma City hospital. He was 83.
Lew Ferguson was born January 9, 1934, on the family farm that his grandfather, John S. Ferguson, claimed in the land run of 1893 in northern Oklahoma. He was the second of three children born to Luther LeRoy Ferguson and Henrietta Marie Mueller Ferguson.
Lew attended first and second grades at Fairview District No. 57’s one-room school northwest of Ponca City. The family left the farm in 1942 after Luther became a fulltime employee of Continental (Conoco) Oil Co. Lew then attended Jefferson Grade School, Ponca City Junior High, and Ponca City Senior High, graduating in 1952.
Lew enrolled at the University of Oklahoma in the fall of 1952, attending on a McMahon Journalism Scholarship. He received his B.A. degree in journalism in 1956, then did graduate work on a McMahon fellowship, sandwiched around active Army duty as an ROTC-commissioned second lieutenant. He finished a thesis and received his M.A. in journalism in 1964. He was discharged from the Army in 1964 as an infantry captain after eight years of active and reserve duty.
At OU, he was a member of Pe-Et Honor society, Omicron Delta Kappa service society, Sigma Delta Chi professional journalism society, was named a distinguished military student in Army ROTC, twice was named Big Man on Campus, and served as president of the Lutheran Student Union. He also worked four years in sports information under the legendary sports information director Harold Keith, and was sports stringer for the Daily Oklahoman and Tulsa World.
Ferguson began his professional career as sports and wire editor of his hometown paper, The Ponca City News, in 1958, when Clyde Muchmore was publisher, Gareth Muchmore was managing editor and Allan Muchmore was business manager. Lew also did play-by-play on high school football and basketball games for two years on WBBZ Radio after Bill Platt left to become voice of the Oklahoma State Cowboys in Stillwater.
Ferguson joined the Associated Press in June 1960 in its Oklahoma City bureau as a summer relief staffer. He transferred to AP’s Sioux Falls, SD, bureau in September, and covered the 1961 session of the South Dakota Legislature, as well as doing bureau sports.
He transferred to Minneapolis in January 1962 and was that bureau’s sports editor until October 1968, when he became Big Eight sports editor in the Kansas City bureau. As a sports writer, Lew covered four World Series, one Super Bowl, and was president of the Twin Cities chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America in 1967. He was also a member of the Pro Football Writers Association.
After moving to Topeka as Statehouse correspondent in June 1970, Lew directed AP’s political, election, and government coverage in Kansas until his retirement on July 1, 1999. During that period, Ferguson covered 29 sessions of the Kansas Legislature, 16 election cycles, the administrations of six governors and nine national political conventions, five Republican and four Democratic.
In 1992, he received the first award given by the Kansas City Star as AP’s top newsman in Kansas and Missouri. He was presented the prestigious Justice Award by the Kansas Supreme Court in 1993, and he is the only journalist to be so honored. He was named a distinguished alumnus of the H. H. Herbert School of Journalism (now the Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication) in 1996. He was listed in Marquis Who’s Who in America for 12 years before his retirement.
In retirement, Ferguson served a four-year term, 2001-2005, on the Kansas Board of Regents, which governs the state’s six universities and sets policy for all of higher education in Kansas. He also served two years on the Washburn University Board of Regents. He wrote a biography of the late U.S. District Judge Tom VanBebber, which was published by the federal judiciary in 2005.
After living 35 years in Topeka, Ferguson and his wife, high school sweetheart the former Sue Thomson of Ponca City, moved back to their hometown in September 2005.
In addition to being survived by Sue, he is also survived by his children, Dr. Diane M. Ferguson, a physician in Hermosa Beach, CA, and John M. (Mike) Ferguson, Ph.D., a professor of organic chemistry at the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond and his wife, Dayna. He is also survived by his grandchildren, Abby and Todd Ferguson of Edmond and Helena DuGard of Hermosa Beach.
Other survivors include Lew’s sister, Louise Gelmers, a retired elementary school secretary in Ponca City, his brother, Donald G. Ferguson, who retired from Conoco, two sisters-in-law, Kathryn Ferguson, Ponca City; Linda Merrifield, Broken Arrow; a brother-in-law, Lloyd Gelmers, Ponca City; and five nieces and nephews, Shelly Holland, Edmond; Julie Lawrence, Ponca City; Andy Gelmers, Tulsa, John E. Ferguson, Littleton, CO; Keri Ferguson, Madison, WI. Another niece, Christy Elliott, preceded him in death.
A graveside service will be held at 2:00 pm on Wednesday, August 30, 2017, at Resthaven-Sunset Memorial Park, in Ponca City with Father Dee Bright officiating.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks for donations to the Bob and Dottie Harder IREAD program, 1515 SW 10th Ave, Topeka, KS 66604, or to Peachtree Landing, in Ponca City, 105 W. Hazel Ave, Ponca City, OK 74601. A memorial service and celebration of Lew’s life will be held in Topeka, KS, in late September or early October.
Sue Ann Thomson Ferguson © Trout Funeral Home & Crematory 01-2019 Submitted by: Glenn
© Trout Funeral Home & Cremator
Sue Ann Thomson (85) passed away peacefully at her home on January 23, 2019. She was born in Ponca City, Okla., on March 5, 1933, to John Albert Lawrence (Jack) and Dorothy (Huffman) Thomson. Even though she was shy as a child, she loved to tell the story of how as a very young girl she got up on a table in Colorado Springs and sang the Texas Bluebonnet song to the troops stationed there. She enjoyed singing and acting out musicals with her playmates. As a leader in an junior high sorority system, administrators sought her help. She worked to shut down the elitist system, earning few friends but taking pride in doing the right thing.
She had an interest in journalism and served as co-editor of the Ponca City High School paper until her graduation in 1951. For years she would joke that her future husband, Lewis Ferguson, was "only" the sports editor. Lew had a long, distinguished career with The Associated Press as a sports and political reporter, culminating with his induction to journalism halls of fame in Kansas and Oklahoma.
Though it was journalism that first captured Sue’s interest, her disdain for deadlines pushed her to education. Sue majored in psychology and special education at the University of Oklahoma where she was a member of Chi Omega sorority and graduated in 1955.
She married Lew on June 5, 1958. Following his journalism career, the couple moved to Sioux Falls, SD, in 1959, then to Minneapolis in 1961. Along the way, Sue taught kindergarten in Oklahoma City, Sioux Falls and Minneapolis. After Sue and Lew’s children were born, John Michael (Mike) in 1964, and Diane Marie, in 1966, she stayed home with them.
The family moved to Kansas City in 1968 and Topeka in 1970 where they would live for 30 years. Sue resumed teaching in 1974, working as a Title I reading instructor at several Topeka public schools during her 21 years. When she retired in 1995, she joked that she’d done playground duty at 17 different schools.
She was always engaged in the world and concerned about human and civil rights. When her children were young, she sent their gently used clothing to Alabama during a difficult time in the civil rights movement. She admired Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and President John F. Kennedy. In her final weeks, she was disturbed by the inhumane treatment of immigrants at the Mexican border.
Until the very end, Sue was sharp and active in researching the genealogy of her family and Lew’s alongside her sister-in-law Kathryn Ferguson. The two collected a trove of historical family stories. She was proud to come from a line of educated Presbyterian ministers and missionaries who worked with Native Americans. She traced her ancestors’ lives through the Ohio River Valley to Oklahoma land runs.
In 2005, Sue and Lew retired to Ponca City. They enjoyed travelling to visit their long-term friends, Gene and Karen Lahammer in Arizona, and Diane and their granddaughter, Helena DuGard, in Los Angeles. Sue enjoyed a range of movies, from the classics and musicals to modern films. She loved music, especially Paul Simon, Janis Ian, Willie Nelson, and Hank Williams.
Lew Ferguson preceded her in death in August 2017. Sue is survived by her son Dr. John Ferguson, her daughter Dr. Diane Ferguson, her grand children Abby Ferguson, Helena DuGard, Todd Ferguson, her daughter in law Dayna Ferguson. She is also survived by her sister, Linda Merrifield, her sister-in-law, Louise Gelmers, her brother-in-law Donald Ferguson his wife Kathryn, her caregiver and former daughter in law Kelly Orser. She leaves behind several nieces and nephews, cousins, and many happy memories.
A funeral ceremony for Sue will be held at 2:00 pm on Saturday, February 2, 2019 at Grace Episcopal Church in Ponca City, OK. She will be laid to rest at Resthaven Memorial Park.
Arrangements are under the direction of Trout Funeral Home & Crematory.
|Resthaven Cemetery| |Kay County Cemetery Page| |Home|
This site may be freely linked, but not duplicated in any way without consent.
All rights reserved! Commercial use of material within this site is prohibited!
© 2000-2024 Oklahoma CemeteriesThe information on this site is provided free for the purpose of researching your genealogy. This material may be freely used by non-commercial entities, for your own research, as long as this message remains on all copied material. The information contained in this site may not be copied to any other site without written "snail-mail" permission. If you wish to have a copy of a donor's material, you must have their permission. All information found on these pages is under copyright of Oklahoma Cemeteries. This is to protect any and all information donated. The original submitter or source of the information will retain their copyright. Unless otherwise stated, any donated material is given to Oklahoma Cemeteries to make it available online. This material will always be available at no cost, it will always remain free to the researcher.