He was born in Shawnee, Oklahoma on June 23rd, 1933 to Barbara Hoyt Liebmann and JG Liebmann II, an Oklahoma City-based ice manufacturing entrepreneur. (He preferred to be known simply by the initial “J”.) As a young boy he met his future wife, Carol Cox Liebmann, when she was just a toddler playing in the sandbox in her parents’ back yard in Crown Heights. He was a classmate of Carol’s older sister Ann and was one of the many neighbourhood children who regularly played in the Cox back yard. J’s parents were also frequent visitors to the Cox home. Carol and J did not date until she was a student at the University of Oklahoma, where mutual friends re-introduced them on a supposedly “blind” date.
J was a member of Classen High School’s class of 1952. At the University of Oklahoma J was a member of Phi Gamma Delta fraternity and graduated with a degree in Business. After graduation he entered the US Marine Corps, serving for three years in the Ninth Marine in Okinawa. J and Carol married in October 1960, a marriage that ended only after Carol’s passing in 2019.
The Liebmann family were pioneers of ice manufacturing in the states of Oklahoma and Florida. After the Marines, J and his brother Guy entered the family ice business, originally established just after the Oklahoma Land Run. J and Guy expanded the business, buying or building ice plants in dozens of cities in Oklahoma and several in Florida.
J and Carol loved the outdoors, spending many weekends hunting and fishing with their family at their ranch near Wellston. They also shared a passion for tennis, spending many hours together with friends at the Oklahoma City Tennis Club. J was a passionate aviator and amateur radio operator, owning several different airplanes over time and flying with friends and family on many trips – often to amateur radio events around the country and abroad.
J and Carol enjoyed their home in Piedmont, Oklahoma, where he was a city councilman, vice-mayor and board member of the local bank. Over time, Carol and J began spending more time in the Florida Keys. Eventually they purchased a second home in Marathon, Florida and spend many happy years in the Keys fishing, boating, snorkelling and entertaining grandchildren.
J is survived by his younger brother Guy Liebmann (of Oklahoma City) and three sons: Brad (of London, England), Bart (of Charleston, South Carolina) and Blake (of Piedmont, Oklahoma), as well as by seven grandchildren and numerous great grandchildren.
J will be buried next to Carol, his parents and grandparents in the Liebmann family plot at Rose Hill Burial Park. In lieu of flowers, gifts can be made to the Alzheimer’s Association @ www.alz.org
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