Obituary for William Adams

Ponca City Now - July 11, 2018 10:42 am

William Atkinson Adams

March 6, 1920 – July 3, 2018

Adams, William “Bill” Atkinson, age 98, long time resident of Ponca City, passed away Tuesday, July 3, 2018 in Fort Worth, TX.

Friends and loved ones may pay their respects at Trout Funeral Home from 9:00-11:00 a.m. Saturday, July 21, 2018 and, as a member of the Greatest Generation, Bill will be honored with a military graveside ceremony to be held at 11:30 a.m., July 21, 2018 at Longwood Cemetery east of Ponca City with Chaplain Tom Howard officiating. Arrangements are under the direction of Trout Funeral Home & Crematory.

Bill was born on March 6, 1920 to William Henry Adams and Marena Catherine Atkinson Adams in Fairfax, OK. After high school, Bill joined the U.S. Army Air Corps on July 19, 1941, serving as an airplane and engine mechanic in the Pacific Theater where he witnessed the signing of the peace treaty with Japan while stationed on the battleship Missouri. He was awarded the Bronze Star and completed his service with the rank of Sergeant. Within a month of his honorable discharge from the Army, Verna Mae Mayfield, his one and only love, became Bill’s wife on November 26, 1945 in Winfield, Kansas. They celebrated 66 years of marriage before her passing in 2012. Upon returning to Ponca City, Bill began working for Conoco Oil where he was a research and development technician and retired from Conoco in 1981 to help with the care of his aging mother-in-law.

Bill enjoyed planting and harvesting his garden and fixing broken things. He made weekly trips to the flea market in Ponca looking for old, broken electrical items that could be repaired and passed on to people who could use them. He was passionate about his family. When their children were young, monthly trips were made to Verna’s family in Kansas and Bill’s family in Oklahoma to help out and visit with their relatives, allowing the children to make close bonds with the family.

Survivors include his daughter Barbara Ann Johnson and her husband Arthur of Drumright, Oklahoma, son Gene Adams and his wife Brenda of Ft. Worth, Texas, six grandchildren and seventeen great-grandchildren.

Bill was preceded in death by wife, Verna Mae Adams; father, William Henry Adams; mother, Marena Catherine Adams as well as eleven brothers and sisters.

Source: Trout Funeral Home