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Keith McElwain passed away Friday, October 16, 2020 at Primrose Retirement Center in Stillwater, Oklahoma. He was 95. Services are postponed until a later date.
Keith Franklin McElwain was born in Mooreland, Oklahoma on April 15, 1925. He died on October 16th, 2020 at the age of 95 at Primrose Assisted Living.
He is survived by his daughter Kris Linda McElwain Russell, his son Kurt Franklin McElwain and his brother and sister-in-law, E. Doyle and Joan McElwain.
He was preceded in death by his wife, Martha Louise Farquhar, his daughter, Jill Heather McElwain, his sister, Glenna Jeanne McElwain (Convertino), and his parents Floyd and Lila McElwain.
He is also survived by 13 grandchildren and 22 great grandchildren.
These are the facts of his life but not the reality of his life. He grew up on a farm in Mooreland, Oklahoma. Wednesdays and Sundays always included time spent at church. He was possessed of a "perfect choir bass voice" and also sang solos through the years. Keith was on the basketball team and was academically in the top ten of his class in high school in Mooreland. He was an exceptionally handsome man!
When WWII broke out, Keith was concerned that it would end before he had a chance to join in. In 1943 he got his chance to sign up in the Army Air Corp. Keith sat down with his mother and told her that our country had need of his service and he would answer that call. He navigated B24 bombers in WWII. After returning from spending some time in the occupation force in Japan, he enrolled at Oklahoma State University to be a mechanical engineer. After graduation he went back to the Army Air Corp and became a pilot, completing multi-engine training flying B-25s in Enid, Oklahoma. When the Korean war started, there was need for navigators more than pilots, so he was sent to Galveston, Texas for 6 months of navigator refresher training. While there he met and fell in love with Martha Louise Farquhar from McKeesport, Pennsylvania who was an RN. They were married on October 18th, 1951 in his mother's house in Stillwater Oklahoma. After 30 years of service in the Air Force seeing combat operations in WWII, Korea and Vietnam, he retired in 1976 while serving at the Pentagon.
Retirement sent him and Marty to Oklahoma City where he started EnSun Corporation and sold domestic and commercial solar energy systems. After 30 years in the business he sold it and moved to Stillwater to fix up and live in the house in which he married Marty. Keith had strength and a willingness to do the right thing when others didn't see or know about it. He had resilience, grit and a deep love for his wife and family and his country. He was quiet and reflective with a dry sense of humor. He loved music. His brother Doyle remarked that his brother was a magnificent specimen of a man! And he was.
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