Tandy G Barr

Tandy was a true man of God. He and his wife Loraine were married 65 years before her death in 2013. They met at a skating rink in 1947, and it did not take long for them to realize they had a very special and deep love. They were married in 1948 at the Church of Christ in Stratford, OK. Their marriage was blessed by two children: Tandyla Darlene in 1950, and Ronald Stanley in 1952. Eventually, they lived in Del City, OK as Tandy started his career at Tinker Air Force Base as an aircraft electrician. Tandy had a mind for electronics and electrics, and he developed those throughout his 25-year career at Tinker and his later career working at Midwest Trophy Manufacturing (MTM Recognition).

Tandy grew up as a farm boy out in the Byars countryside where there was no electricity and no running water. He remembers the hard lives his mother and father lived. His mother slaved long, long days trying to care for a family of six with no modern conveniences, toiling out doors to prepare and cook for a large family. He played outside in the dirt most of the time with a small tractor/road grader. He was always trying to mimic the work men were doing as they built the overpass in Byars. He loved doing that. He would sit in the tree near the house so he could see his mom baking. He would watch his daddy plow their fields with a single horse and plow. It was a tough life in the country.

Tandy was baptized at the age of seventeen. He never smoked or drank, and he was the apple of his mother's eye. He was the youngest of the four children. He remembers that his mother would never chastise him because he always tried to do the right thing - so she did not worry about him.

After he and Loraine married and had moved to Del City in 1952, they decided to become members of the Del City Church of Christ that just formed. They loved the people at the church, and remained members until this day. He served as a deacon for many years until Loraine became very ill. He was the spiritual leader of their home. He was usually found praying and reading his Bible despite the long hours he spent working at Tinker and eventually Midwest Trophy Manufacturing (MTM Recognition). Tandy's older sister Keta was always looking out for him and she is the one who found the job at Tinker, as well as a house next door to her and her husband Clyde in Del City. They lived there for several years until they got the urge to move to the country to raise their two children.

They bought an acre of and daringly planned a building and block garage where Tandy could practice his building and masonry skills. So, they saved enough to buy cement and blocks for Tandy to start building. He finished the double garage so that they could move in there while he worked on the rest of the house. There was a tiny kitchen at the northeast corner with a small bath and shower on the northwest side. They divided the rest of the space into living and bedrooms. It was very tight, but they made it work.

After retiring from TInker, Tandy still needed a few years of work to secure Social Security benefits. So, he started working for Midwest Trophy Manufacturing (MTM Recognition) as an engineer. He spent the next twenty-five years finding ways to solve seemingly unsolvable problems with machines, electrical work, and anything else needed to keep the growing company running smoothly. In his later years, his grandchildren, Barry, Bronson, and TIffany each worked briefly at MTM and fondly remember spending time with Tandy on their lunch breaks.

Tandy had a natural ear for music - playing in a band in high school, and always had a guitar or other musical instrument at home. He did not need to learn to read music - he would pick up things after only a few listens. In his later years, he learned to play the violin and accordion. Combining his love of making things and music, he built two pedal steel guitars from scratch.

In his later years, he kept his mind active by working on his elaborate train set, reworking the electrical system and making other changes to his large train table. As he became less mobile, his interest turned to sewing machines. He never sewed anything with them. But he drove himself to understand how each of the different machines worked. His love of computers also paid off in his later years. After introducing his grandchildren to them, they made sure he kept active on his iPad by watching train and auto videos, always trying to learn something new.

Tandy is survived by his daughter Tandyla Hill of Edmond and Ronald Barr of Kingwood; grandchildren Barry Hill, Jennifer Barr, Bronson Hill, Rachel Rathbone, and Tiffany Jordan Hill-Shepherd; great-grandchildren Brian Rathbone, Ethan Rathbone, Jace Hill, Tres Hill, Andrew Rathbone, Mason Hill and Grayson Hill.