Clarence Omar Sneed

Clarence Omar Sneed was born to Clarence Nathan Thomas and Kate (Browning) Sneed on August 16, 1930 at home in the Pleasant Grove Community near Seminole, Oklahoma. He was delivered by Dr. Gurlingtor at 12:05 p.m. His mother gave him the first name Clarence after his father. His father gave him the middle name Omar after his good friend Omar Carr who was a fellow member of the school basketball team. Some member of the extended family called him “Sonny” and it stuck. To all his relatives and his siblings he was always “Sonny” and still is.

Clarence grew up in the hard time periods of the great depression and World War II in two distinctly different environments: 1) in the rough and tumble of the oil field towns of drilling crew moved the rig from place to place, and 2) on hard scramble sharecrop farms in Arkansas.

Clarence was a street smart kid at 8 as a result of the oil field environment. He had experiences that most kids don’t have until they are teens. He had attended nine schools just to get through First and Second grade. (Jal, NM; Hobbs, NM; Eunice, NM; Oklahoma City, OK; Chandler, OK; Ada, OK; Boswell, OK; Lovejoy, TX; Odessa, TX)

That’s when his father and mother decided to leave the oil field life and settle on a farm so their kids could grow up in a more stable environment where they could stay in the same school all year. They settled in the Wright’s Chapel Community to the southwest of DeQueen, Arkansas and farmed there from August 1938 until December 1940. Clarence attended Central Elementary in DeQueen through grades third, fourth, and first semester of fifth. He also learned the satisfaction and joy of hard work on the farm. He learned to plow at age 9 and helped pull a crosscut saw to cut wood for the stoves.

In December 1940 the family moved to a farm just a little west of Horatio, Arkansas. They farmed there from December 1940 until December 1944. Clarence attended the Horatio School starting the second semester of fifth grade and continued until graduation. In December 1944 the family moved to Boggy Springs which is just a little northwest of Horatio. There his father began working for the pipeline at the pump station in DeQueen and Clarence did the farming in 1945 and 1946. He also raised a brood sow as part of a FFA project.

Clarence graduated from Horatio High School as co-valedictorian of the class of 1946 at the age of 15. He wanted to go to college but his parents could offer little help since they had four other children to feed, clothe, and send to school. Fortunately the local banker (Mr. C.E. Hendrix) was president of the board of trustees at Magnolia A&M, a two-year college located at Magnolia, Arkansas (now Southern Arkansas University). Mr. Hendrix was also speaker of the Arkansas House of Representatives, so he had so clout. Mr. Hendrix, chauffeured by an Arkansas State Trooper, took Clarence to Magnolia, got him enrolled, for him a campus job that paid room and board, and got him assigned to a room in a dorm.

With that taken care of Clarence sold his brood sow and pigs for $100.00 enough for tuition and books for two years at magnolia A&M. He was on his own at the age of 16.

Clarence spent those two years at Magnolia A&M in pre-med studies. On the weekend he worked nights as a bell hop at the Magnolia Inn to get some spending money for necessities. During summer vacation he worked as a laborer on construction projects at the college.

After two years at Magnolia, Clarence had no immediate chance to continue his education so he returned home and took a job on a surveying crew to save up for another chance.

Shortly thereafter he met Helen Pauling Pennington on September 11, 1948. After an eight month courtship they were married on Helen’s 18th birthday. May 26, 1949. They were vagabonds for two years until the Korean War forced Clarence to join the air force to avoid being drafted into the army.

After basic training, Helen was with Clarence at each location where he was stationed; First at Keesler AFB located at Biloxi, Mississippi to attended basic electronics school. Next, at Sandia Base located at Albuquerque, New Mexico to attend special weapons school. Finally, at Bossier Base (a base inside Barskdale AFB) near Shreveport Louisiana to perform the duties for which he was trained.

Bossier Base was one site of the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project (AFSWP) a multi-service organization whose commander reported directly to the secretary of defense. Clarence was stationed at Bossier Base from November 1952 until 1955. However, he did serve at other locations on temporary duty assignments. Their son, Gregory Allan Sneed, was born at the Barksdale AFB hospital on March 10, 1953.

Clarence was released from active duty in September 1955. The family then moved to Ruston, Louisiana where Clarence enrolled at Louisiana Tech to pursue a degree in Electrical Engineering. During their time in Ruston Helen worked for Southern Bell and Greg attended day care at Mrs. Linders.

Clarence received a BS degree in Electrical Engineering in January 1958. He accepted an offer from Convair in Fort Worth and reported for work February 5, 1958 as a design engineer. He received a Master’s Degree in Electrical Engineering from SMU 1963. His entire career was spent participating in the design, manufacture, test and deployment of intelligence data. Processing systems. He worked on projects associated with the RB-47, RB-58, EC-130, RC-135, U-2, SR-71 and some satellite systems. He retired from Lockheed in 1993 as an Engineering Staff Specialist.

After 42 years in Fort Worth, Helen and Clarence moved to Plano to be near their son and his family. Since both Greg and Donna worked they took over the duties of getting grandson Hayden to his many acitivities (school, ROTC, scouts, football, orchestra, etc.) This forged a close relationship with Hayden over the years. He went through high school, college, and law school. He took a job in Montgomery, Alabama so he was at a distance from Helen and Clarence then Greg and Donna retired and moved to the country near Ozark, Arkansas.

Now it was just Helen and Clarence again like they started more than 70 years ago. They embraced and went on with life together. What a wonderful ride it has been.