Mr. Oran Sanders

Oran Dinzle Sanders was born the sixth child of 10 children to Leonodus Barton and Nora Bessie (Heflin) Sanders in Comanche, Oklahoma on March 2, 1922. He spent his younger years growing up around the Lone Wolf area. He joined the United States Marine Corps at the age of 18 serving from 1940 to 1945 and was wounded in the Bataan Death March.

After leaving the military, he became a Golden Gloves boxer. Deciding after his first professional fight this was not the line of work for him, he went into law enforcement becoming a police officer and highway patrolman in New Mexico. In 1959 he moved his family to Oklahoma and went to work at Tinker Air Force Base. He became very involved in the union and was one of the very first organizers with the AFL-CIO AFGE Local 916 starting as a steward. He then became National Vice President until retirement in 1991. He was a member of the Moose and VFW in Duncan and Norman. He was a lifetime Emeritus member of AFGE/AFL-CIO. Due to his hard work and dedication, a yearly award was established in 2008 in his honor called the O.D. Sanders Award. He loved traveling in his RV and fishing.

On February 17, 1958, he married Marjorie Anderson Hardy. Marjorie passed on September 17, 2006 in Duncan, OK. He was also preceded in death by his parents; brothers, Homer Lewis, Charles Willard, Clifton Cleo, L. B., Waymon Wayne, Hershal and Duon Sanders; and a sister, Thelma Appleton.

O.D. is survived by a sister, Bessie Riley of San Diego, CA; three sisters-in-law, Frances Sanders of Granite, OK, Sharon Simmons of Harrah, OK, Irene Anderson of Wichita, KS; children, Dinnie and Barbara Sanders of Shawnee, OK, Oranna Simpson of NM, Debbie Morrison of Norman, OK, Jean and Jerry Remington of Okmulgee, OK, Darlene and John Hart of Norman, OK, Jim and Margaret Hardy of Noble, OK; 15 grandchildren; 23 great-grandchildren; and one great-great-grandchild. He has many nieces and nephews.