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The Celebration of Life for Lee Thompson will be 5:00-7:00 p.m. Wednesday, July 27, 2022, at Oakwood Country Club.
All are welcome.
Mr. Thompson passed away January 30, 2021.
Services are through Henninger-Hinson Funeral Home. www.enidwecare.com
Lee B. Thompson, Jr., was born March 18, 1931, in Oklahoma City, the son of Lee B. Thompson and Elaine Bizzell Thompson. He died peacefully on January 30, 2021, at home in the company of his three children following a brief illness. He would have been 90 in March. He was the grandson of Dr. William Bennett Bizzell, 5th president of the University of Oklahoma.
Lee grew up in Oklahoma City where he attended Edgemere Grade School, Harding Jr. High and was a 1949 graduate of the original Classen High School. In 1954, he received a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from OU where he was a devoted member of Beta Theta Pi fraternity. He went on to serve as a Beta District Chief and a National Vice President.
In his freshman year at OU, he met fellow freshman Ann Richards, of Tulsa, on a blind date. Neither ever had a date with anyone else. They were married in 1954 upon graduation and enjoyed 47 years of marriage until Ann's death in 2001.
Upon graduation, Lee was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the Air Force and served two years active duty at Keesler AFB, MS, and Francis E. Warren AFB, WY.
Following initial employment in the oil industry, he became a New York Life Insurance agent in Enid, where he enjoyed an extraordinarily successful career as a Chartered Life Underwriter. He was a member of the Million Dollar Round Table each of 48 years, reaching its highest ranking levels of Top of the Table and Court of the Table. He was New York Life's Oklahoma City General Office's Agent of the Year 8 times.
Lee was a devoted citizen of Enid and was a very active civic leader, for which he was honored. In 2005, he received Enid's "Pillar of the Plains Award" for his "extraordinary service," including past presidencies of the St. Mary's Regional Health Center board, Enid School board, Enid Airport Board, Enid Fire and Civil Service, Enid Rotary Club, Public Safety Tax Commission and Oakwood Country Club.
He was an instrument-rated pilot, played OU freshman, intramural, Air Force and commercial league basketball, loved golf, and is remembered by many as the longtime OU spotter for his friend, broadcaster Bob Barry, eventually becoming producer/director of the Sooner Football Network broadcasts. From boyhood, Lee had the gift of being a friend and had many great, lifelong friends. An example is his enjoyment of being a member of the "Good News Coffee Group" of Enid, which he attended every weekday morning for 55 years. He was considered the Chairman of the group.
He was the proud father and grandfather to his children, Kathi McGee of Boulder, CO, Lee B. "Trippy" Thompson, III (and grandsons, Dexter and Gus) of Kingston, NY, and Suzy Thompson (Steve "Wampus" Reynolds and grandson, Sangster) of Norman; brother, Ralph G. Thompson (Barbara); and sister, Carolyn Zachritz (Don) of Oklahoma City. The family thanks J.B. Baker for her years of friendship and companionship to Lee, and remembers Esther Dreschler for her companionship from 2005 until her death in 2011.
A memorial service will be held when pandemic conditions permit. Cremation arrangements are under the direction of Henninger-Hinson Funeral Home.
Memorials gifts may be given through the funeral home to Enid Public Schools Foundation or Enid SPCA.
Condolences and remembrances of Lee are welcome for the family to view at www.enidwecare.com.
Lee B. Thompson Jr. will be remembered for many things, but his sense of humor and his laugh are what those close to him will miss the most.
Thompson, who died Jan. 30, was known around Enid for many things, but his hearty laugh is what really made the 6-foot, 6-inch, 89-year-old man’s presence known.
“What I miss most, and what I will miss most, is his laugh and his humor,
because he’s one of the funniest people I’ve ever met,” said Thomson’s son
Lee B. “Trippy” Thompson III. “I realized, ‘Wow, I’m not going to hear that
laugh,’ … I think a lot will miss his laugh because
it was a big,
boisterous, barrel-chested laugh, and a big booming voice … He was just a
big, booming, presence. Whatever room he was in, you knew he was in it, and
I’m gonna miss that — I’m going to miss this humor.”
Thompson was born March 18, 1931, in Oklahoma City. His parents were Lee B. Thompson and Elaine Bizzell Thompson, daughter of the University of Oklahoma’s fifth president William Bennett Bizzell.
He had two younger siblings, Ralph and Carolyn, and he grew up with Ralph Thompson during World War II, living on military bases in Abilene, Texas, and Devens, Mass., before returning back to OKC, where the family lived near Edgemere Park, which Ralph Thompson said was a magical field of imagination for the boys growing up.
“Now what Lee and I always reminisced about was the fun we had in Edgemere Park because it became everything a little boy’s imagination could come up with,” said Ralph Thompson, who was four years younger than his brother. “It was every battlefield of WWII. It was every stadium of note — Yankee Stadium, OU football stadium, the Cotton Bowl — whatever we wanted it to be, it became in our imagination, and it was a very memorable part of our growing up childhood.”
When the two were living on military bases, they were the only kids, and Ralph Thompson said it was a “huge adventure” to the boys. Soldiers “spoiled them rotten,” Ralph Thompson said, giving the two cut-down equipment and uniforms so they could play “soldiers.” Thompson later went on to serve two years in the Air Force.
In 1954, he graduated from OU with a bachelor’s in business administration where he was a member of Beta Theta Pi. He met Ann Richards on a blind date during his freshman year, that same year. The two never dated anybody else after that, marrying in 1954.
“I remember that — because our dad was 6-foot-6 and 165 pounds and red hair — when our mom first saw him, she thought, ‘That is the funniest looking boy I have ever seen in my life,’” his daughter Suzy Thompson remembered with a laugh. “They always made each other laugh from the get-go.”
They had three children: Kathi McGee, Thompson III and Suzy Thompson. Suzy Thompson described her parents as authentic people with unique personalities, and Thompson III said they were quite a force together. The couple was married for 47 years before Ann died in 2001.
Thompson settled in Enid in 1961, becoming a New York Life Insurance agent in 1964, retiring in 2017, and was a member of the Million Dollar Round Table. He raised his children in Enid, a city he loved dearly. And the city of Enid loved him.
“He was so civically involved — just always trying to do what he felt was going to improve Enid,” McGee said. “He just always had Enid on the forefront of his mind. When (us kids) all left, he told me several times, he didn’t understand how anyone would want to live anywhere but Enid. He was just where he wanted to be.”
In his 60 years here, he was the past chairman of St. Mary’s Regional Health Center board, past chairman of Enid Fire Civil Service Commission, past chairman of Enid Charter Review/ Change Committee, past chairman of Public Safety Tax Committee and past treasurer and board member of Greater Enid Chamber of Commerce, where he served on the military affairs board for Vance Air Force Base, according to a 2004 article from the News & Eagle.
In addition, he was past president of Enid Public Schools Board of Education, Oakwood Country Club, Enid Airport Board and Enid Rotary Club.
These civic accomplishments led to Thompson receiving the 2004 Pillar of the Plains award for his extraordinary service. Both McGee and Suzy Thompson said their father was honored and humbled by the award.
“Most of us in his family were not aware of his notable leadership, civic leadership in Enid,” Ralph Thompson said. “He didn’t talk about his accomplishments, and he wasn’t very patient with anyone who did, but we were really surprised and so proud to learn of what a great civic leader he was in Enid and held all those positions of responsibility because he never spoke about his achievements very much.”
Thompson’s children all said he would fly them down to watch OU football games, which he was passionate about. He was even a longtime spotter for his friend and broadcaster Bob Barry, and he eventually became the producer of the Sooner Football Network — volunteering to do it because he loved OU football, and Ralph Thompson said it was a lot of fun and an adventure for him.
Though he loved football, OU basketball was Thompson’s first love, Suzy Thompson said. He made the OU basketball team during his freshman year and later played on intramural teams, as well as playing in Air Force and commercial leagues.
For Thompson III, who also is a Sooner fan, one of the coolest things his dad would do was have OU football players autograph Thompson III’s artwork, along with taking him to the games.
“For a kid who was a huge Sooner fanatic, I really lucked out,” Thompson III said. “To be an artist, and to be able to have these little drawings get autographed by your favorite player of the moment, and just being able to go down on the field at the end of games and stuff, and going to the Orange Bowl and riding on the team bus, stuff like that — it’s just like, ‘Wow.’” Thompson III remembered that his dad always respected the game, even when the Sooners lost.
All three of Thompsons kids attended OU, as did Ralph Thompson and his children. The family, going all the way back to former OU President William Bennett Bizzell, truly bleeds crimson.
Thompson wouldn’t just fly his kids to Norman — they also flew to their vacation destinations as well, including Colorado, Iowa, Ohio and Indiana. McGee and Thompson III even got to co-pilot the plane, remembering stories their dad would often tell of their flying adventures.
“I remember one story that kept coming up: when he first started flying in his Cessna, and he took me up in the plane with him, and he said, ‘Now just pull out the steering wheel.’ But he didn’t tell me to pull it out slowly,” McGee said with a laugh. “So full force, I pulled out and the plane went straight up in the air.”
Thompson III will never forget a trip he took with his father to Mackinac Island on Lake Michigan.
“There’s just this clearing in these woods,” Thompson III said. “We just dropped right down. (Thompson) had these superhero sort of qualities as a little kid looking up at him — 6-foot-6 and about the upper-200-pound range … He was a giant of a man, both in stature and in heart.”
Thompson had many friends over the years — millions, Ralph Thompson said, and McGee said he had friends from his childhood in Oklahoma City whom he still was friends with up until about a year or two ago.
As a warm and friendly guy, he had a knack for keeping friends, including J.B. Baker and the late Esther Dreschler, who both shared good times with Thompson.
Described as an opinionated man by his family members, Thompson also was a member of the “Good News Coffee Group” of Enid, which he attended every weekday morning for 55 years, and the group grew to about 15 or more people.
“That really was important to him,” Ralph Thompson said. “He had a wonderful time with all those people, and they just went back and forth. Can you imagine that many men, and eventually women, of all political persuasions having coffee together every morning for all those years? He regaled me with stories that convinced me that it truly was not a place for the thin-skinned, and they had a great time.”
Thompson was a loyal, honest, family- oriented and animal-loving man, who especially loved his cat Lulu in the past two decades. Though he will be missed by many, Thompson III finds comfort in knowing parts of his father are still here with him.
“I’m going to miss him, but I’m going to see him in my children, I’m going to see him in my sisters,” Thompson III said. “My voice is pretty much identical to his, and I have a pretty sick laugh of my own. I feel him in my presence … I have a lot of him in me ... We have very similar makeups as far as physical attributes are concerned. I’ll see him everywhere forever. I’ll see things that he would have thought were funny, and again, it’s his humor. For me, humor is a big part of life, and nobody made me laugh like my dad. He just was a riot.”
A memorial service will be held when pandemic conditions permit. Cremation arrangements were under the direction of Henninger-Hinson Funeral Home.
Lee B. Thompson, Jr. was born March 18, 1931 in Oklahoma City, the son of Lee B. Thompson and Elaine Bizzell Thompson. He died peacefully on January 30, 2021, at home in the company of his three children following a brief illness. He would have been 90 in March. He was the grandson of Dr. William Bennett Bizzell, 5th president of the University of Oklahoma.
Lee grew up in Oklahoma City where he attended Edgemere Grade School, Harding Jr. High and was a 1949 graduate of the original Classen High School. In 1954, he received a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from OU where he was a devoted member of Beta Theta Pi fraternity. He went on to serve as a Beta District Chief and a National Vice President.
In his freshman year at OU, he met fellow freshman, Ann Richards of Tulsa, on a blind date. Neither ever had a date with anyone else. They were married in 1954 upon graduation and enjoyed 47 years of marriage until Ann’s death in 2001.
Upon graduation, Lee was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the Air Force and served two years active duty at Keesler AFB, MS and Francis E. Warren AFB, WY.
Following initial employment in the oil industry, he became a New York Life Insurance agent in Enid, where he enjoyed an extraordinarily successful career as a Chartered Life Underwriter. He was a member of the Million Dollar Round Table each of 48 years, reaching its highest ranking levels of Top of the Table and Court of the Table. He was New York Life’s Oklahoma City General Office’s Agent of the Year 8 times.
Lee was a devoted citizen of Enid and was a very active civic leader for which he was honored. In 2005, he received Enid’s “Pillar of the Plains Award” for his “extraordinary service” including past presidencies of the St. Mary’s Regional Health Center board, Enid School board, Enid Airport Board, Enid Fire and Civil Service, Enid Rotary Club, Public Safety Tax Commission and Oakwood Country Club.
He was an instrument rated pilot, played OU freshman, intramural, Air Force and commercial league basketball, loved golf, and is remembered by many as the longtime OU spotter for his friend, broadcaster Bob Barry, eventually becoming producer/director of the Sooner Football Network broadcasts. From boyhood, Lee had the gift of being a friend and had many great, lifelong friends. An example is his enjoyment of being a member of the “Good News Coffee Group” of Enid which he attended every weekday morning for 55 years. He was considered the Chairman of the group.
He was the proud father and grandfather to his children, Kathi McGee of Boulder, CO; Lee B. “Trippy” Thompson, III (and grandsons, Dexter and Gus) of Kingston, NY and Suzy Thompson (Steve "Wampus" Reynolds and grandson, Sangster) of Norman; brother, Ralph G. Thompson (Barbara) and sister, Carolyn Zachritz (Don) of Oklahoma City. The family thanks J. B. Baker for her years of friendship and companionship to Lee, and remembers Esther Dreschler for her companionship from 2005 until her death in 2011.
A memorial service will be held when pandemic conditions permit. Cremation arrangements are under the direction of Henninger-Hinson Funeral Home.
Memorial gifts may be given through the funeral home to Enid Public Schools Foundation or Enid SPCA.
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