Services for H.A. Blackburn will be at 10 a.m. Friday, January 14 at the Central Church of Christ in Ada, Oklahoma. Burial at Rosedale Cemetery in Ada will follow immediately after the services.
H.A. Blackburn passed away peacefully at his home on January 9, 2022 at the ripe old age of 102. H.A. was born December 6, 1919 to Herman Allen (Bud) Blackburn and Mary Etta Ford Blackburn.
H.A. married Lucile Johnson Blackburn on February 23, 1942.
H.A. is survived by his son, Stephen Lee Blackburn and wife Becky of Ada; son-in-law Michael S. Cox; three grandchildren, Melissa Speed and husband Bill of Ada, Amy Blackburn of Yukon, Oklahoma and Clint Blackburn and wife Lauren of Raleigh, North Carolina; Five great-grandchildren, Will Speed, Lexie Speed, Lillie Speed, all of Ada and Reese Blackburn and Tess Blackburn of Raleigh, North Carolina.
H.A. was preceded in death by his parents, all of his siblings, his wife Lucile and daughter, Judy Gail Cox.
Bearers will be Tom Hendrix, David Burden, Debbie Burden, Vickie Patton, Bill Speed and Will Speed.
H.A. was his name. The letters were not his initials. His name was H.A. H.A. knew Jesus Christ as his savior and is in heaven with his beloved wife Lucile and daughter Judy.
H.A. attended Byng schools, graduating high school in 1938. H.A. loved baseball and played it in high school and after high school played American Legion ball. He loved watching and listening to professional baseball games until the day he died. The New York Yankees was his team. He was an avid fan of baseball who looked forward to the beginning of baseball season each year. He would watch other teams but his heart belonged to the Yankees.
H.A. served his country during World War II as a member of the Army Air Corp. H.A.’s career was mostly in car sales. He worked for Service Chevrolet and Marion Fenton Pontiac. One of the benefits of his work back in the day was awards of travel by General Motors Company. He and his wife travelled to many foreign locales on the tab of General Motors. Those trips included trips to Hawaii, Spain, England, the Bahamas, and many other places.
H.A. loved golf and if there is a golf course in heaven H.A. has found it along with his cousins Paul and Skeeter Landrith, brother Bill Blackburn and friend Wib Scroggins and is hitting them straight down the fairways.
H.A. was a peace maker. That character served him well as an Elder at the Central Church of Christ and as an official refereeing football and basketball games for approximately 37 years. He was inducted into the Oklahoma Officials Hall of Fame in 1988. Some of the players who played in the games he called remembered the calls long after his career ended. One local player by the name of Earlene often complained to H.A. even recently that he called too many fouls on her many, many years ago and his response was always the same, you played rough Earlene.
H.A. didn’t say much but his words, often spoken quietly, carried weight to all audiences. Whether that audience was his family or members or his church, when H.A. spoke, people listened.
H.A. served his community well. He was a member of the Kiwanis Club for 50 years, serving as the Lt. Governor of the Texas Oklahoma District and President of the local Kiwanis Club. He made enough snow cones at Wintersmith Park to cover the town in snow. He served as an Elder of the Central Church of Christ for many years.
H.A. loved his family. He showed that in many ways but one of those ways was by taking the family on long car trips to various wonderful places like Washington, D.C. and teaching them traveling tips such as sucking on peppermints to avoid stopping to eat, much to the bane of the family who needed and wanted to stop to eat.
H.A. loved popcorn on Sunday nights after church. He passed that love on to his grandkids. It may have been that love for popcorn that helped him pop the corn at Wintersmith Park for the patrons for so many years. The family would request that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Kiwanis Club of Greater Ada’s fundraising for its new train through the Ada Chamber of Commerce Foundation.
Our family would like to thank the great folks at Angelic Family Hospice and Tina Stephens for their hard work, comfort and loving care of H.A. during his final days.
Criswell Funeral Home, Ada.
