Kenneth M. Wilkerson

ADA--- Service for Kenneth Melvin Wilkerson, 93, of Ada, will be at 11:00 A.M. Saturday at Criswell Funeral Home Chapel, the Rev. Temple Diehl will officiate. Burial will follow at Memorial Park Cemetery. The family will receive friends from 6-8 P.M. Friday at Criswell Funeral Home.

Mr. Wilkerson died Monday, January 7, 2013 at Integris Hospice House in Oklahoma City.

Kenneth was born on June 17, 1919, to Harvey and Tishie Wilkerson at their Atwood, Oklahoma farm. He graduated from the Atwood School in 1938. The next two years he continued to farm in the Atwood area, worked at the Choctaw Cotton Gin in Holdenville, and teamed with a friend wiring homes and oil rigs for the new arrival of electricity in rural Oklahoma. In 1940 he ventured into the Texas oil patch and roughnecked until he was offered a right-of-way & lineman position with the incoming REA, setting up electrical lines in rural Oklahoma. Then, as the war broke out he became employed with Dallas North American, building B24 bombers.

On December 22, 1942, he married Bonnie Delle Gatlin of Calvin and they immediately moved back to the Dallas area. He continued to work with North American until he joined the Navy and for the next 3 years Bonnie and he were transferred from Oklahoma back to Dallas, Daytona and Pensacola working in each area attached to North American with the construction of their bombers. With the end of the war Kenneth & Bonnie returned to Ada and his job with the REA. He continued to work as a lineman up to the position of Line Operations Supervisor for the now PEC (Peoples Electric Coop), retiring in 1983. Though retired from his fulltime duties he continued in periodic part-time positions with the PEC until his 72th birthday in 1991, fully retiring then after 50 years of REA/PEC service.

Survivors include two sons, Ken Wilkerson and his wife Becky of Guthrie, Keith Wilkerson of Ada and one daughter, Katrina Grissom and her husband Doug of Duncan; his grandchildren, Gregory Wilkerson, wife Nicole and great-grandchildren Kennedy, Bonnie,and Colter of Manor, Texas; Kristi Knierim , husband Jared and great-grandchildren Karis and Lark, of LaVergne, Tenn.; Joel Grissom, wife Jessica and great-grandchildren Graci and Lindi of Duncan; and Mark Grissom of Duncan; one brother, Freeland Wilkerson of Tulsa and one sister, Retha M. Foye of Oklahoma City and many nieces, nephews and other relatives and friends.

He was preceded in death by Bonnie Delle, his wife of 68 wonderful years; one brother, Carey Wilkerson; five sisters, Doris McCain, Leona Edwards, Wilma Turner, Flora Cain, & Tula Hollister.

Bearers will be Mark Grissom, Joel Grissom, Gregory Wilkerson, Jared Knierim, Wayne Jones, John Whelchel, and Blaine Phillips.

Obituary may be viewed and online condolences sent to criswellfh.com