photo circa 1925

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Opal Gladys Smith Ford

June 11, 1909 - April 19, 1983

Opal Gladys (Smith) Ford was born 11 June 1909 in Cement Township, Caddo County (Oklahoma), to Bert Clark Smith and Edna May (Kenner) Smith. She died Tuesday, 19 April 1983, in Lawton, Oklahoma after a brief illness. She was 73 years old.

She married Henry Thomas Ford on 22 May 1931 in Clinton, Oklahoma. He died 12 November 1962.

Ms. Ford graduated from Central State College (Edmond, Oklahoma) in 1927 and began teaching that same year at Carnegie, Oklahoma. Other teaching opportunities for her included Granite, Chattanooga, El Reno, and Clinton. She joined the Lawton Public Schools in 1946 and was appointed head of the Lawton High School Speech Department from 1947 to 1968. She was President of the Lawton Classroom Teachers Association in 1959 and was honored as the Lawton Teacher of the Year in 1959. In 1954, she received the National Forensic League's Diamond Key Award in recognition of her outstanding speech program at Lawton High School.

Mrs. Ford was Secretary of the United State Daughters of 1812 Local Chapter, a member of the Local Chapter of the National Society of the Daughter's of the American Revolution, and a member of the National Society Magna Carta Dames.

She is survived by a daughter, Roberta Knight of Calgary Canada; a son, Thomas Clark Ford, Magnolia, Arkansas; a brother, Glen A. Smith, Bay St. Louis, Mississippi; six grandchildren and one great-grandson.

Services are scheduled for 10:30 a.m., Friday (22 April 1983) at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church (Lawton, Oklahoma), with Father William C. Shirey officiating. Burial will follow at Highland Cemetery (Lawton, Oklahoma), under the direction of Becker Funeral Home.