Jennings Cemetery

Jennings, Pawnee County, Oklahoma

© Chapman-Black and Poteet Funeral Home

Submitted by: Terry Dudley

Orville Wayne Mills

February 1, 1944 ~ January 11, 2022

Orville Wayne Mills passed from this life on January 11, 2022, at the age of 77 in Jennings, Oklahoma.

Orville was born on February 1, 1944, in Oilton, Oklahoma the son of George William and Jewel (Carlile) Mills. Orville grew up and attended school in Oilton, Oklahoma where he later graduated from high school. Orville began working as a ranch hand and drove cattle from Coyote trail to Old Keystone to the train station to ship to Kansas City, Missouri. His best friend was Big Red a Morgan horse, he raised from a colt and became the best cutting horse you could ask for. He was a one-man horse and proved it many times. He gave him a good 33 years and died of old age. Orville was later united in marriage to Catherine Yvonne (Denny) Mills on December 14, 1962, in Cleveland, Oklahoma at the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The couple initially made their home in Cleveland later moving to Oilton until making their permanent home in Jennings where they have continued to reside for the past 50 years.

Orville has worked as a utility line layer in Tulsa and mostly as a siding applicator for the majority of his life forming OM Construction in the early 1970s. Orville worked for Prudential installing aluminum and vinyl siding and roofing houses in many states. They transferred from Tulsa to Atlanta, Georgia. He then moved to Little Rock, Arkansas, and was a partnership of Beauty Homes Incorporated and moved back home and started his own business and was well known in Jennings, Drumright, Yale, and surrounding areas. Later, to be known as OM Construction. Orville then retired in the early 1990s and farmed full time and supplied many with hay. Most of all Orville loved working as a farmer and rancher which he has done all of his life. After retirement, he started his day having his daily biscuits and gravy and drinking coffee throughout the day at Hallett Grocery. He loved sitting on the rock and greeting and visiting with people passing through. He was known as a giver, lending money to those in need. Some didn't pay him back, but he was a patient man. He was a jokester and told many stories, most of the time you didn't know when he was serious, you would always wait for a punch line to be coming.

Survivors are his loving wife of over 59 years Cathy of the home, four children Mark Mills and his wife Ladonna of Terlton, Oklahoma, Darla Mills Brandon and husband Stanley of Jennings, Oklahoma; Darren Mills and fiancé Mary Middleton of Jennings, Oklahoma, April Curry and her husband Steven of Okemah, Oklahoma; three siblings G.W. Mills and wife Sylvia of Cleveland, Oklahoma, Larry Mills and wife Linda of Jennings, Oklahoma, Delores Alley and husband David of Pawnee, Oklahoma; eight grandchildren, four great grandchildren and a host of other relatives and friends. In addition to his parents, Orville was preceded in death by his sister Georgia Semler and Ruby Lay.

Services will be held 2:00 pm, Tuesday, January 18, 2022, at the First Baptist Church in Oilton, Oklahoma with Pastor Larry Calvert officiating services. Burial will follow in the Jennings Cemetery. Chapman-Black Funeral Home will be handling the arrangements. Friends and family may visit an online guest book and memorial page for Orville at www.chapman-black.com.