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Terry Winston Whitten Odessa Our dear brother, father and grandfather left this life behind on Thursday, December 2, 2004. He had persevered through several years of pain and exhaustion of heart disease with quiet resolve until it was time to go home and be healed. Terry was born November 19, 1931 in Bodcaw, Arkansas in the family home his father had been born in. He was the first child to Chester L. and Syrena Russell Whitten. He had wonderful stories of growing up there. He spoke of his love for his mother’s cooking and how she occasionally had to send him to the apple tree for a switch when mischief had overcome him. Terry had spent untold hours hunting and trapping with his father and uncles. He worked hard helping with the various family businesses. His responsibilities at the cotton gin and sawmill were heavy for a young boy and there was always the livestock that needed tending. As early as thirteen he was driving the tractor and heavy truck. He learned how to handle large loads of lumber and watermelons and cows that had to go to market. Working at his father’s side he developed a strong work ethic and appreciation for the value of a man’s word. He passed these things onto his children not by words but by his actions. He also imparted his love and zest for life to all he came in contact with including his grandson Jarrett. Pa was always ready and willing to play. He was a member of Bodcaw Missonary Baptist Church where as a teenager he received Jesus Christ as his Savior. As was the custom of the time and place he was baptized in a local stock pond. Terry graduated from Bodcaw High School in 1949 where he had played basketball for the Bodcaw Badgers. He unwillingly left his beloved Arkansas because of limited opportunities. Terry traveled with Brown and Root Pipeline for several months until he moved to Odessa to go to work for his future brother- in- law C.W. Smith at Loffland Brothers as a roughneck. He would later become a driller for Llano Drilling and continued working with them after the company sold to Cactus Drilling Corporation. His oil career had spanned forty years at his retirement. During that time there were many long days and seven day work weeks with no vacation all in an effort to provide a stable home for his family. Terry’s high school sweetheart Willie Jean Cassidy joined him in Odessa in the summer of 1950 and they were married on August 8. He was preceded in death by his beloved wife of 53 years on December 2, 2003. He was also preceded in death by his brother Royce Dean Whitten and his mother and father. He is survived by his daughter and son-in-law, Diane and Steve Parker of Odessa and grandson Jarrett Whitten Parker, his son and daughter-in-law Terry Michael and Regena Whitten of Denver. He is also survived by three sister, Shirley Bridges of Maumelle, Arkansas, Lynda Amos of Pearland, Texas and Carolyn Joyce Murff of Hurst, Texas. Uncle Terry will be greatly missed by his numerous nieces and nephews. Family visitation will be Sunday from 5 p.m. until 7 p.m. at Frank W. Wilson Funeral Directors. Funeral services will be at 10 a.m. Monday at First Baptist Church. Burial will follow at Sunset Memorial Gardens. Services arrangements entrusted to Frank W. Wilson Funeral Directors. |
