A celebration of Sam Young’s life will be held at First Baptist Church, Hugo, OK, on Tuesday, April 21, 2009,at 10:00 A.M. with Reverend Doug McClure officiating. Graveside services will be held Tuesday at Cedar Lawn Cemetery in Sherman, TX, at 3:00 P.M. Samuel Wilkerson Young, Jr., 78, entered the presence of his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Saturday evening, April 18, 2009, after a seven-month battle with lung cancer.
Sam was the son of Samuel Wilkerson Young, Sr., and Rachel Margaret Savage Young of Denison, Texas. He was born on July 10, 1930, in Howe, Texas. Sam attended Denison schools; he was the winner of the FFA Lone Star Farmer Award in 1946, and graduated from Denison High School in 1947. He joined the U.S. Army in 1951, and served the following year in the Punch Bowl, Korea, during the Korean War. After receiving an honorable discharge from the Army in 1952, Sam joined his family in Ninnekah, Oklahoma, where he met Charlotte Mynona Ginn. They were married in Ninnekah, Oklahoma, June 19th, 1954. During his life, Sam worked at a variety of jobs which included farming, and wholesale grocery sales. In 1965, Sam decided to learn the hamburger business. He worked at Whataburger stores in Corpus Christi and Texas City, utilizing his wholesale grocery experience. Two years later, he moved his family to Denison, where he teamed with former schoolmate, Charlie Watson, to successfully build and develop Watsonburger stores. Sam opened his own hamburger store, The Busy Bee, in Hugo, Oklahoma, in 1973. Three more hamburger stores named S. Wilk’s--Famous for Samburgers, were established in Idabel, Atoka, and Tushka, Oklahoma. Sam took great pride in crafting high-quality, good-tasting hamburgers. He loved people, and his hamburgers were always served with a good dose of hospitality.
The following poem written while he was in Korea, describes how a Texas farmboy learned to value people. “Cotton Stalks” ¯ Did you ever hear of a town named Inje? It sat close by a river of the same name I spent five weeks of my life there It was there I learned a lesson I remember today. I was walking in that little river valley When I became aware of something that I knew well. Row after row of old, brown cotton stalks Past time for harrow and moldboard plow. Then I stumbled and almost fell A tattered photograph album came to view Did I know these people? Do they look the same? Could they be a family I once knew? Other bits of people’s lives came to view A rusty coat hanger, a broken doll, a worn-out shoe I stepped over a crumbling wall, or was it a foundation of a house? Was this family gone forever, or just seeking refuge in the South? The lesson I learned should be easy to see This used-to-be-farm once supported folks like me After this, I viewed people of the far East in a different light I was able to love them, and appreciate our fight. For 44 years, Sam’s passion was to serve and love all those who entered his stores. His children learned this lesson well, as did a hundred or so teen-age employees who worked in his stores over the last four decades.
Sam was preceded in death by his parents, Sam and Rachel Young. He is survived by his wife of 54 years, Charlotte; four children and their spouses: Carol and Mark McNiel of Katy, TX, Boyd and Tina Young of Denison, TX, Richard and Amy Young of Oā€™Fallon, MO, and Susan and Rick Wilson of Ben Brook, TX; seven grandchildren: Andrew and Hannah McNiel, Kynna and husband, Stephen Hamilton, Samuel and Zachary Young, Richard, Jr., and Jordan Young, and one great-granddaughter, Madelaine Grace Hamilton. He is also survived by two brothers and one sister, along with their spouses: George and Twylah Young of San Antonio, TX, Richard and Colleta Young of Spokane, WA, and Margaret and Robert Derebery of Denison, TX. Visitation will be held Monday, April 20, 2009 at Prater-Lampton-Mills-Coffey Funeral Home from 6:00-7:00 P.M. in Hugo, Oklahoma. In lieu of flowers, donations in the memory of Sam may be made to First Baptist Church, 300 East Jackson, P.O. Drawer B, Hugo, OK, 74743.
