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Pryor-
Robert Lige Everitt was born July seventh, 1928, near
Cleveland, Texas to Emmitt and Ruby (Dabney) Everitt. Bob was raised on a
farm and was third in line with four brothers and three sisters. Fourth in
line was Marjory, who was quite the character and even though younger, she
bossed Bob around. Bob loved Marjory and was devastated by her death in
childhood.
In 1946 at the age of 17 Bob joined the Navy, serving on the USS Prairie, a destroyer tender. Aboard ship he encountered fellow Texan Kenneth Hughes and the two became fast friends. When Bob shared that he had no one to write to, Kenneth showed his trust by advising, “Write to my sister, Joyce.” A lonely sailor and a young girl soon found comfort in an active exchange of correspondence. When Bob ended his Naval service, he returned to Texas to find work. All he could find were short, odd jobs and amid the tension of unemployment he stopped writing Joyce. Unable to find satisfying employment, Bob turned again to the military, but this time joined the Army where loneliness drove him to again to put pen to paper and renew his correspondence with Joyce. On a short leave he hitch hiked to the Texas hospital where she worked as an aide. When Joyce walked down the stairs in her Nurse’s uniform, she saw a handsome soldier frozen on the spot, his face alight with a broad smile. The two, though never having met before, were smitten with one another at first sight.
They realized that a long courtship and engagement was not for them and were soon married. The constraints of military leave did not give enough time for a three-day waiting period so Joyce’s father, John Hughes and her grandmother, Rebecca Hughes drove them to Louisiana where no waiting period existed. With family as witnesses Bob and Joyce were united in marriage on January 17, 1950, in DeRidder, Louisiana. A union that lasted until Joyce entered her Heavenly rest in 2017. The Newlyweds were together on an Army base in Colorado but were separated when Bob was deployed to a construction battalion on the Island of Okinawa. Upon discharge, Bob used his GI Bill to go to Barber College and the couple settled in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Upon graduation Bob became employed at the Air Lawn Barber Shop in Dallas, TX from where he retired as owner. At retirement Bob and Joyce moved to Pryor, OK to be near their daughter and family.
Bob trusted Jesus as Savior late in life. He was reunited with those who have gone on before when he passed from this world on September 22, 2025, in the Oklahoma Veteran’s Center of Claremore, OK at the age of 97 years two months and 15 days.
Bob was preceded in death by his parents Emmitt and Ruby Everitt, three sisters Lela Bell, Marjory and Kathleen, four brothers, Bert, Kenneth, Bill and Donald, and a son, Gary Duane Everitt who died in infancy and his wife, Joyce Irene Everitt.
Bob is survived by Daughters Linda Everitt and Lila (Everitt) Nichols, his son-in-law Darrel Nichols, three grandchildren: Rebekah Anne Nichols, Sarah Elizabeth (Nichols) Myers and husband Jacob and one grandson, Gabriel Everitt Nichols and six great grandchildren, Eden Celeste Myers, Ephraim Myers, Theodore Myers, Xavier Myers, Tessa Joyce Myers and Lila Grace Myers.
Internment and private family services will be October 6 at Fort Gibson National Cemetery.
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