Roy Lee Bennett

Roy was born on February 17, 1909 in Oklahoma City but the family soon moved
to a small town called Sulphur, Oklahoma when he was still in diapers. Roy's father was Norman Lee Bennett and his mother was Sarah Ann Gowens Bennett.
Roy had a half brother named Joe and later a baby brother named Ray. Tragically, Ray died of pneumonia when only 6. Roy's father was Sulphur's first mayor around 1910.

Roy's parents purchased several lots on the west side of Sulphur next to Platt National Park. On the side of a small rise, they built a large (for that time) home in about 1915.

One day few years later, Roy was not feeling well so he stayed home from school with his mother. With little to do, Roy and his mother began watching a man dig a hole across the street on the north side of the house. Suddenly the man looked up at their house, threw down his shovel and began running. Wondering what would make someone act that way, they started toward the south side of the house to look. At that moment, a tornado struck their house ripping off the roof and destroying the inside. Luckily, Roy's mother protected him with her body by pressing him against a wall, which happened to be under a strong point in the house. Luckily, neither Roy nor his mother was injured. The house was rebuilt and still stands at 223 West 12th street. Roy graduated from Sulphur High School about 1924. He soon met Marguerite Ross who had been born in Agusta, Italy in 1910 while her mother was visiting there from the USA. They met at a movie theater in Ardmore, OK where Marguerite was working as an usher.

They were married in 1930 and they both worked for Marguerite's father who was the foreman of an asphalt plant near Sulphur. After living a few years in a house owned by the asphalt plant, they bought a home next door to Roy's parents. Roy's father passed away in 1935. Roy and Marguerite's first child was a boy born in 1937. They named him Don.

For many years, Roy and Marguerite did the payroll at the asphalt plant. Marguerite said that she and Roy had to figure the wages for several hundred employees each Thursday. Those wages included hours worked plus tonnage minus any purchases the employees had made at the company store. All they had to work with were pencils and a simple adding machine but they were always able to get the checks cut and the men paid on time.

Roy was too old to be drafted so for the first few years of the war he continued to work for the asphalt plant. In 1944 he decided he was tired of being the only young man in town and wanted to contribute to the war effort, He volunteered for the Army in 1944 and served in England, France and Germany with the 120th Evac as a clerk.

After the war, Roy returned to the asphalt plant. Apparently, He wasted no time and his second son was born in March of 1946 whom they named Ray - after Roy's deceased brother.

When Roy's mother passed away in 1954, he and Marguerite remodeled the old house on West 12th street and moved in to stay.

After the asphalt mine closed, Roy worked as a bookkeeper for several small businesses around the Sulphur area until his retirement in 1975.

Roy passed away in 1982 and Marguerite followed him two years later.