William B. Chatham

William B. Chatham, who died September 8, 2006, was born October 9, 1919 south of Binger, Oklahoma to John E. and Angie L. Chatham of the Binger and Lookeba, Oklahoma, communities. William Bill graduated from Lookeba High School in 1937. He attended Oklahoma Baptist University, then Oklahoma A&M at Stillwater, Oklahoma until 1941.

Bill spent the summers of 1939, 1940, and 1941 working at the Cliff House Hotel in Manitou Springs, Colorado and the winter of 1941-42 at the Whitman Hotel in Pueblo, Colorado. He was later employed by the US Army engineers in the construction of Tinker Field Air Base, Midwest City, Oklahoma. In April, 1944, Bill joined the US Department of Agriculture's Soil Conservation Service at Anadarko, Oklahoma. In December, 1944, Bill married Icy Mae Smith in her parents' home in Binger, Oklahoma. Bill's father, Reverend J. E. Chatham, performed the ceremony. In 1960, Bill was transferred to Weatherford, Oklahoma, and remained there until his retirement in December, 1974.

In 1975, Bill started working as the Weatherford Junior High School custodian and stayed in that position until 1978 when he was offered the job of custodian of the newly constructed First Baptist Church, Weatherford. He continued to work there until his retirement in 1993. In 1997, Bill and his wife moved to San Antonio, Texas.

He is preceded in death by his parents, one brother, three sisters, and one infant son, Billy Chatham. Bill is survived by his loving wife, Icy Mae Chatham and his son, Robert Chatham, both of San Antonio; his brothers Emory Chatham, Pueblo, Colorado, Bernard Chatham, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, James Chatham, Nashville, Tennessee, and Roy Chatham, Conway, Arkansas.