Elton L. Kerbo

Elton L. Kerbo was born on a farm in Russell, Oklahoma in 1922. He grew up on the farm with 5 sisters and one brother, dealing with the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. In 1940 he received a basketball scholarship to attend Oklahoma City University. His university years, however, were interrupted by World War II. After being sent by the US Army to study engineering, his unit was transferred to the US Army Infantry. After Infantry training in the USA and England, his unit went across the Chanel not long after D-Day to push into Germany. But just before crossing into Germany, Elton was captured by German forces at the beginning of the Battle of the Bulge. He spent almost a year in a POW camp in Germany until being liberated by General Patton’s tank brigade. After returning to Oklahoma in 1945 he was offered a scholarship to run track at Oklahoma State University, where he graduated with a BA in Math, and met his wife of over 50 years. After a few years of teaching math in Oklahoma high schools and being a basketball coach, he took a job with the Federal Aviation Agency at Will Rodgers Field in Oklahoma City, where he retired. Before retiring he and his wife Nina were temporary foster parents to almost 100 children over the years and in 1985 were awarded foster parents of the year by the Oklahoma Baptist Children’s Home. Elton was preceded in death by his wife Nina in 2005. He is survived by two children, Harold and Rick, four grandchildren, Josh, Caleb, Nicole, and Emily, and 10 great-grandchildren living in Oklahoma and California. Funeral services will be held 1:00 pm, Tuesday, January 20, 2015 at Meadowood Baptist Church in Midwest City with interment to follow at Arlington Memory Gardens.