Samuel Benjamin Lessley

Funeral service for Samuel B. Lessley will be 2 p.m., Wed., Sept. 1, 2010, at the Musgrove-Merriott-Smith Chapel. Brother Sam Nichols will share words of comfort. Burial with military honors will follow at Woodlawn Cemetery. Visitation will be held at the funeral home Tues. 1-8 p.m., and family will greet friends 6-7 p.m.

Sam was the youngest of three sons born to William Earl Lessley and Lelah Faulkner Lessley on February 20, 1918. He graduated from grade school at Akins, Oklahoma and from Sallisaw High School in 1936. In February 1941 he and a cousin "thumbed" their way to Tulsa and enlisted into the United States Air Corp for 3 years. When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, his enlistment contract turned into "for the duration" which was one month less than five years.

While stationed at the Walker Air Force Base at Roswell, New Mexico, Sam met and married Hazel Tripp, daughter of Joe and Pearl Cash Tripp. The Tripp family was from Mill Creek, Oklahoma. Sam and Hazel were married March 19, 1943. Their daughter, Barbara Jean, was born in Roswell on February 19th, 1944. Six weeks later, Sam was sent overseas to England.

After Germany surrendered, Sam, as part of a group of 39, was sent to Vienna, Austria. After several months, he was sent back to the states with an honorable discharge in November, 1946. That fall, Sam moved his family to Tahlequah, Oklahoma where he enrolled at Northeastern University. His son, Ronald Lee, was born in the Tahlequah hospital July 12, 1947.

Sam played second base for the Air Corp baseball team and second base for the Northeastern University baseball team.

Sam and family moved to Claremore, Oklahoma in 1954. He worked for Douglas Aircraft until 1958 when he and his brother, Faulkner Lessley, designed and built the Claremore Nursing Home. Sam's son Ron and grandson Brett later purchased the corporation and have since built an assisted living facility on the same campus.

Sam designed and built a beautiful home on north Memorial Drive in Claremore, Oklahoma in 1966 where he and his wife Hazel have lived for the past 44 years.

Sam was preceded in death by his parents and his brothers, Hoyt and Faulkner.

He is survived by his wife, Hazel, of Claremore, OK, daughter, Barbara, and her husband, Jack Mason, of Lawrenceville, GA, son, Ronald, and his wife, Meredith, of Claremore, OK, grandson, Brett Lessley, and his wife, Jenny, of Tulsa, OK, grandson, Bryan Mason, and his wife, Lindsay, of Lawrenceville, GA, grandson, Matthew Mason, and his wife, Sarah, of Winston-Salem, NC, great grandchildren, Joshua and Rebekah Mason, of Lawrenceville, GA, and numerous nieces and nephews.