Billy Joe "Bill" Meeks

Billy Joe “Bill” Meeks, former Seminole county resident passed away in Shawnee, Oklahoma on December 18, 2015;  he was 84 years of age. Bill was born on March 24, 1931 in Tracy, Oklahoma between Shawnee and Earlsboro. He met his future wife Margaret Virginia Carpenter through friends and they married on July 15, 1950.   He worked for the DX Service Station in Seminole, Oklahoma greasing cars and doing anything and everything that needed doing.   Later he went to work for Independent Tank Service as a welder.  From there he moved to the Seminole Fire Department and did welding on the side, welding oil field tanks for a Tank Company.  He was working for the Fire Department in Seminole when his first child, Billy Keith, was born.  Later he went to work for Mobile Oil Company.  He tested with Mobile as a welder, but there wasn’t an opening so they hired him working in the field first as a roustabout and later as a pumper.  Mobile moved the family to Kermit, Texas when Billy was 3 months old.  His second son, Jack Edward, was born there a few years later.  Mobile kept the family moving.  They went from Kermit Texas to Lindsey, Oklahoma and then to Healdton, Oklahoma.  Billy Joe coached a “Bad News Bears” baseball team in Healdton that he convinced Mobile to Sponsor.  The boys played on it The family moved to Thomas, Oklahoma and they stayed in Thomas long enough for the boys to graduate high school.   Bill and Margie then moved to Stonewall until the house they were building in Ada, Oklahoma was completed.   They lived in Ada for several years.   At one point Bill signed up to work in Iran.  That lasted less than a month and he was home again and back with his family.  After a brief period working out of Perry, Oklahoma Margie and Bill decided to retire and they settled in the Seminole/Shawnee area to be near Bill’s brothers and sisters.  Bill worked for 39 years with Mobile.  He was a member of the Moose Lodge and the Elks. Bill loved few things in life more than telling a tall tale, watching John Wayne movies, listening to Marty Robbins records and being around family.  His pride and joy were always his two granddaughters who will always remember with great fondness their trips with “Papa” to check tank batteries when he was a pumper for Mobile. Bill leaves two sons and a daughter-in-law, Billy Keith Meeks and his wife Sherry of Guthrie, Oklahoma and Jack Edward Meeks of Shawnee; one brother, Jack Harold Meeks of Seminole, Oklahoma; two grandchildren, Shasta Jo Dawn Ashcraft of Edmond, Oklahoma and Choya Tracy Lynn Page of Chesapeake, Virginia; and five great-grandchildren, AllyJo Page, Caden Page, Declan Page, Evey Page, and Berkeley Ashcraft; and a host of other family and friends. Preceding Bill in death  is his wife of 62 years, Margaret Virginia (Carpenter) Meeks;  his parents, Newton and Willie Odessa (Watson) Meeks; and four sisters, Margie Louise Meeks, Juanita Rudell Cornelison,, Betty Fern Hays (Bill’s twin sister), and LaJuana June Cross. A Private Family Service is scheduled for 12:30 p.m., Monday, December 21, 2015 at Rest Haven Memorial Gardens in Seminole, Oklahoma. Services are under the direction of Swearingen Funeral Home in Seminole, Oklahoma. Funeral Information: December 21, 2015, 12:30 PM Private Service - Rest Haven Memorial Gardens located at Hwy 270 / 2 miles E. of Seminole, Seminole, OK 74868