Elmwood Cemetery

Woodward, Woodward County, Oklahoma

© Billings Funeral Home Woodward
Submitted by: Terry Dudley

Ronald Dean Hohweiler

December 1, 1940 ~ April 2, 2025

Ronald Dean Hohweiler was born in Woodward, OK on December 1, 1940, and passed from this life on April 2, 2025, following a courageous battle with cancer. More commonly known among family as Ronnie, or to his friends (and fans) as Ron, he grew up on the Hohweiler family farm (an Oklahoma Centennial Farm just outside of Fargo, OK. His mother, Olive, was a gifted vocalist who made certain that Ron and his sister, Dee Ann, had every opportunity to develop their respective musical talents. By age eleven, Ronnie was playing guitar and singing. At age 14, he and his cousin, Jimmy Hohweiler, were featured performers at teen dances.

After a few years of playing teen dances and parties, Hurshul Clothier hired sixteen-year-old Ronnie to play bass guitar with the Oklahoma Travelers during a summer break from school. He had to promise his folks, Ezra and Olive, that he would return to complete his last two years of high school.

It was on a fateful night playing a dance at the old Rancho Dance Hall at Lakeview Drive and Downs Ave in Woodward, that Ronnie met his future bride, Buena "Ann" Johnson. They married on April 1, 1958, in Canadian, Texas. Their first child, a son named Robin Dean, was born on October 10, 1958, in Shattuck, OK. Their second child, a daughter named Tamara Ann (aka, Tammy) was born on July 19, 1961. Their first home was directly across from the Fargo school before moving to Woodward to a home on 19th Street sold to them by Ann's Uncle Bob Hoffman.

By the time, Ronnie was 18 years old, he was playing with Wyman Blevins' western swing band before rejoining Hurshul Clothier's band as a piano player and back up vocalist. During that stint with Clothier's band, he played with Jimmy Benjamin, Jack Bailey, and Arlen Caywood, all of whom had been on the road for years with Bob Wills, Merl Lindey, and Pee Wee King.

Following Hurshul Clothier's departure for eastern Oklahoma, Ronnie went to work at KSIW-AM/FM around 1972 as a radio disc jockey under the tutelage of famed songwriter/guitarist Lyle Gaston, composer of several Hank Thompson hits including "Blackboard of My Heart." Lyle was program director of KSIW and for the next several years played music with him at various venues. After Lyle retired, Ronnie continued in radio (where he was probably best known for hosting Swap Shop every day at noon), cutting hundreds of commercials, and even hosting a morning talk show until 1992.

Also in the early 70's Ronnie began a twelve-year stint playing piano, organ, and vocalist for Garland Wilson's Debonaires, a pop music band that played everything from big band to blues, to country.

Following his father Ezra's untimely death in 1972, Ronnie assumed control of the family farm raising cattle and wheat until maintaining his health began to consume all of his time.

In November 1992, Ronnie was elected to the office of County Clerk of Woodward County. He held that position until the fall of 2011 when he retired.

During those years he began performing with guitarist Don House, and soon was part of the western swing scene again, playing with Texas Playboys fiddler Frankie McWhorter, Johnny Lee Wills, and sax player Stan Schroeder. Don House's band eventually teamed up with Eddie McAlvain's band.

When Don House built a performing opera house in Thomas, Oklahoma in the late 90's, the original band, now known as The Opry Band, backed countless musicians that appeared there every weekend for the next six years.

Ron Hohweiler was preceded in death by his parents, Ezra and Olive Hohweiler, and his beloved wife of nearly 67 years, Ann Hohweiler. He is survived by his sister, Dee Ann Russell of Norman, Oklahoma; his son, Robin Hohweiler, a retired U.S. Navy Senior Chief, Robin's wife, Mary Ann of Fargo, OK; and, Ron's daughter, Tammy Roberts, currently the Woodward County Court Clerk and her husband David Roberts of Woodward. There is one grandson, Derrick Roberts and wife, Ashley, of Woodward; one granddaughter, Veronica Hohweiler, of Los Angeles, CA; and three great grandchildren, Destinie Wasden and her husband Kash Wasden of Owasso, OK; Drake and Dax Roberts of Woodward, OK; along with a great-great granddaughter on the way. And, of course, there are countless friends and family who made Ron's acquaintance along the way and will miss him greatly.

Funeral services will be held at 10:00 am Friday, April 11, 2025 in the Billings Funeral Home Chapel. Interment will follow in Elmwood Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the Friends of Historic Fort Supply with Billings Funeral Home accepting donations.

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