Donald Lee Howard

A visitation service for Donald Lee Howard, 79, Cordell resident, will be from 6 to 7:30 p.m. this evening in the Kiesau Memorial Chapel of the Kiesau-Lee Funeral Home in Clinton.

Howard will be laid to rest with a private burial next to his wife, Edna, in the Peace Lutheran Cemetery in Bessie.

Howard died Saturday, Dec. 20, 2014, in his Cordell home. He was born Nov. 12, 1935 in Anadarko, the son of Wayne and Anita (Mills) Howard.

Howard spent his young life in Anadarko and, on his ninth birthday, his father was killed in an accident and the family moved to Cordell in about 1945.

He attended and graduated from Cordell High School in 1953. He worked for Puckett’s Food Store and Meade’s Company in his early years.

He married Edna D. Reinschmiedt on Feb. 19, 1956 in Bessie.

Howard was employed with Cordell National Bank until 1970 when he purchased the Chevrolet dealership and owned and operated Don Howard Chevrolet until he semi-retired in 1981. He worked in the Washita County Courthouse in the assessor’s office until his retirement.

Preceding him in death were his parents; his wife; a son, Michael Howard; a sister, Virginia Intermann-Nonast; and a brother, Gerald Howard.

Survivors include a son, Keith Allen Howard, of Palm Springs, Calif.; a grandson, Justin Howard and his wife, Natalie, and two great grandchildren, Aiden and Noah Howard, all of Tulsa; brothers and sisters-in-law, Vera Dick, Oklahoma City, Juanita Reinschmiedt, of Clinton, Dwayne and Gladys Pankratz, of Cordell, Cork Ross, of Clinton, and John and Lillian Neuman, of North Ridge, Calif.

The family suggests that memorial contributions in his honor be made to the Peace Lutheran Church Memorial Pavilion at Bessie.