James Richard Cantrell
Born: July 18, 1931 in Tulsa, Oklahoma
Died: December 9, 2020 in Fort Worth, Texas
This is a tribute to my Father. It pales in light of what a wonderful person he was. It only brushes the multitude of experiences he lived. And it barely touches the lives that he influenced, guided, supported, and loved. I know of no medium that could come close to truly describing his life, excepting maybe a 5,000 page novel. Who knows, that may be next. But then again, my Dad was so much more than one person could ever write down. He experienced so much that only those with him at the time know. He touched so many that we never knew.
So this is my tribute — as lacking as it is. We miss you Dad.
Who am I? I am proudly James Aaron Cantrell — his favorite son. Okay, his only son. And his very proud son.
I hope this tribute brings back many memories.
Genealogy
James Richard Cantrell was born on July 18, 1931, in Tulsa, OK. His parents were Annie Ruth McClellan Cantrell and Horace Francis Cantrell.
Horace Francis Cantrell was born on September 15, 1905 in Van Alstyne, TX. Van Alstyne is a small, agricultural town 45 miles north of Dallas. Horace’s parents were Jacob Franklin Cantrell and Stella Almeda Page Cantrell. Horace showed up in Henryetta, OK in 1920. He married Annie Ruth McClellan in 1927. He was in Tulsa, OK in 1931 and he shows up in Sapulpa, OK in 1930, and back in Henryetta, OK in 1940. By all accounts, Horace was a nice guy and fun to be around. He worked mainly in the grocery industry. At one time, he was co-owner of the Henryetta Bakery.
Unfortunately, he had a problem with alcohol, which took over most of his adult life. He died on December 29, 1973 in Tempe, AZ. His ashes were spread over South Mountain there.
Annie Ruth McClellan Cantrell was born on August 13, 1908 in Willow Springs, MO. Willow Springs is southeast of Springfield, MO, deep in the Ozarks. Annie’s parents were William Atchison McClellan and Martha Annie Turner McClellan. Annie appears on the on the 1920 census in Henryetta, OK, as an 11 year old. Annie worked mainly as a bookkeeper and took in borders to help with the finances. She died on April 25, 1995, in Cleburne, TX. She is buried there.
Early Life
1931 – Most of Dad’s early life was spent in north eastern Oklahoma. He was born in Tulsa, OK, on July 18, 1931. His parents were Annie Ruth McClellan Cantrell and Horace Francis Cantrell. They had moved to Tulsa for a job Horace got at the Piggly Wiggly, a grocery store. They lived in the rear of the store, at 1120 S St. Louis. Today, that location is a Whataburger. The 1931 City Directory Tulsa OK, shows the following: “Horace F (Anna R) mgr Piggly Wiggly No 5739 h rear 1120 S StLouis av.” Piggly Wiggly was a big grocery store chain.
April 1, 1935 – Dad lived with his family in Oklahoma City, OK. Horace was a salesman in retail grocery.
1940 Census – Dad shows up on the 1940 Federal Census living in 401 N 5th Street, Henryetta, OK with his parents (Horace (31, salesman, retail grocery, worked 50 weeks in 1939 and made $1500 for the year, was a high school graduate) and Annie Ruth (29, high school graduate)); along with his sister, Margie (10, completed 4th grade). The census shows Dad as being 7 years old. These census entries are interesting in that Horace was actual 34, Annie was 30, Margie was 10 and Dad was 9.
1941 – Horace becomes co-owner of the Henryetta Bakery. Dad used to say how he always enjoyed getting up early and riding the bakery delivery truck with his dad, (Horace).
Early Days of WW II – Dad remembered pulling a wagon around the streets of Henryetta collecting scrap metal for the war effort.
1944 – Dad was a newspapers delivery boy for the Stillwater News Press. On June 6, 1944, was called out at 3 a.m. to sell special edition announcing the Allies’ invasion of Europe.
1944 thru approximately 1948 – Dad bought newspapers at wholesale from Stillwater News Press. He then sold them at retail to some 150 daily customers.
July 1947 thru July 1948 – Dad worked at the Camera Theater, Stillwater, OK. Usher, doorman. $0.50 / hr. 30-35 hours per week
July 1948 thru September 1951 – Dad moved over to the Leachman Theaters, Stillwater, OK – usher, doorman, brief time as assistant manager. worked 35 – 40 hours per week. $0.50 / hr
Aug 10, 1948 – Dad enlisted in the Navy Reserve as a Class V-6 (General Service and Specialists). While serving in the Navy Reserve, he went on several training exercises, including one in 1948 where he visited Panama, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba.
1949 – Dad was a senior at Stillwater High School. Dad best friend in high school was Bob Church. The Pioneer was the yearbook. Dad was “Kodak Editor” and an associate editor. I assume “Kodak Editor” was the photograph editor.
Dad was well like in high school. He ran track and played a lot of intramural sports. My favorite story from his high school days is the time he was in the showers with a bunch of guys and decided to be Tarzan. Naked, he jumped up and grabbed a pipe overhead to swing from. Unfortunately, it was a hot water pipe. He dropped, hitting his head, knocking him out. His friends loved it!
May, 1949 – Graduated from Stillwater High School. His home address in Stillwater was 118 N Duck St.
Divorce of Parents – Sometime in the 1940s, I assume the later half, Dad’s parents got divorced. Horace had a problem with alcohol, as did 3 of this brothers. While he was never mean to Dad, the story is that Annie would have to go down to the local bar to get money for food. Divorce in Stillwater in the ’40s was frowned upon. Even her Methodist church friends had trouble dealing with it. Dad stepped up and worked really hard, as you can see from the number of hours he put in each week, to try to help the financial situation of the family. His sister, Margie, married Robert Adams in 1947. After that it was just Dad and his Mom, along with borders they brought in to help with the income. Annie had health problems during this time also, which put even more pressure on Dad.
Collection of Pictures from Dad’s Early Life
College Life
September, 1949 – entered college at Oklahoma A&M in Stillwater, (later renamed Oklahoma State University). Dad lived only a couple of blocks from the campus.
1950 Census – Stillwater, OK at 118 N. Duck St. Annie’s entry said “head, 41, divorced, born: MO, worked 48hrs last week, bookeeper at laundry, worked 50 wks last year, earned $1700, earned addt’l $225, other in household earned $650 plus $150, had two lodgers.” Dad’s entry said “18, 25hrs as usher at theater,.”
Sept 1951 to July 1953 – Dad worked as College Postoffice Clerk, Okla A&M, Stillwater – pay: $0.50/hour. He sorted mail, sold stamps, weighed parcels. He left the Post Office to enter active military service. This was a critical job for Dad. Actually, very critical to my sister, our seven kids, eight grandchildren and me; for it is was while working this job that a young, country beauty walked in every day to pick up the dean’s mail. Dad found her immediately attractive, so he slipped her a note in the mail, asking for her number in case he had something important for the dean. That beauty? Margie Ruth Todd, my mother. It is rumored he used this ruse on several young lasses. Glad this one worked!
Dad was a member of the Sigma Theta Epsilon – Methodist fraternal organization and Sigma Delta Chi – College of Journalism fraternity.
May 27, 1951 – Dad was honorably discharged from the US Navy. His ending rank was “Seaman.”
May, 1953 – Dad graduated from Oklahoma A&M, which later changed its name to Oklahoma State University. His degree was in journalism. He amassed 135 credit hours, BA Journalism [Journalism, 37 hrs; English 14 hrs, Sociology 12 hrs]. He was Treasurer of the Sigma Delta Chi journalist fraternity as well as a staff officer in the college Reserve Officer’s Training Corp (ROTC) where he served as the public information officer.
May 31, 1953 – After graduating, Dad married the love of the rest of his life, Margie Ruth Todd. They were married in Pawnee, OK, in the Methodist Church. Grandpa Todd did not want anyone there except close family. We are not sure why. But he did buy a new suit and bought Grandma Todd a new dress, so they knew it was special. Mom purchased her dress for $10 at Penneys.
Military
July, 1953 – In July of 1953, Dad and Mom headed to Fort Monmouth, NJ for a Basic Signal Officers Course where he studied various military subjects.
Later in that month, he was posted to the White Sands Signal Corps Agency in White Sands, NM. He stayed there until April, 1955 and his end pay was $450 a month. While at this post, he was “Supply officer and technical reports editor — handled administrative supply details for Electronic Warfare unit of White Sands Signal Corps Agency, and edited technical reports classified up to and including secret for Electronics Warfare unit.” [from his USSS job application].
Dad used to tell me of the times he had to go out and stop traffic on Highway 70 (I think it was Highway 70). They stopped traffic when ever the missile range fired test missiles. Traffic could be stopped for hours. Sometimes they would see the missiles fly over and other times not.
July 27, 1953 – Commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant
July 29, 1953 – owned a 1951 Plymouth 4-door
August 29, 1953 – Physical test: 5′ 8 1/2″, 140 lbs., age: 22; 5 pull ups, 50 squat jumps, 37 push ups, 45 sit ups in 2 minutes.
October 6, 1953 – This is a letter from Dad to his mother. It really show insight into who he was. Scroll down to read all six pages, or click the link right below it.
December 28, 1953 – assigned to TSU White Sands Signal Corp Agency
January 20, 1954 – Assigned to Electronic Warfare Div with primary duty as Supply and Maintenance Officer with additional duties as Tech Reports Editor
April 28, 1954 – Orders came through in Las Cruces (White Sands Proving Ground, Signal Corps Agency) – Assigned additional duties as Training Officer, rank: 2nd Lieutenant
November 12, 1954 – Dad’s life changed as he became a father. James Aaron Cantrell, that’s me, was born in Pawnee, OK. Dad was stationed in Las Cruces at this time, so he drove Mom up to Pawnee as the big day approached. The trip was 742 miles and roads were not interstate highways for sure. The story goes that Mom was in labor for three days. Guess I didn’t want to leave that warm, comfortable environment. When I decided to come on out, it was in the operating room of the Pawnee Hospital. There was a gallery up high where Dad, Grandma & Grandpa Todd, and even my Great Grandma Whitlow watched the whole thing. When my placenta was delivered, Dad made some comment like “Yuck” and Great Grandma W said, “Well you don’t have to eat it Jim.”
February 24, 1955 – promoted to 1st Lieutenant
April 24, 1955 – Dad received an honorable discharge from the US Army. His ending rank was Lieutenant. He was 5’9”, 152 lbs.
Dad took a job as a reporter for the Ponca City News in April 1955 He worked there until September, 1956. He made $73 per week.
September, 1956 – Mom and Dad moved to Oklahoma City when Dad got a job with the Oklahoma Publishing Company. He mad $90/week and covered federal building for OKC Times newspaper. While covering this building, he became aware of the U.S. Secret Service.
Before Kids
With Kids
1959 – 1959 was a big year. On June 1st, Patricia Gayle Cantrell was born in a downtown hospital in Oklahoma City. Later in the year, Dad applied to join the United States Secret Service. He was sworn into the Secret Service on 19 Oct 1959, in the Federal Courthouse in Oklahoma City, OK.
1959 – 1965 – Dad’s work for the Secret Service was mainly in the counterfeiting/government check forgery areas of enforcement. He loved to work cases. He would gather a stack of cases and head out in his little Chevy and work the whole state of Oklahoma, a week at a time. He had a friendly rivalry with another agent in the office on who could close the most cases in the office. Dad always won!
I remember one story Dad would tell about this time, when he was working a case where a young teenager was filing pennies down to the size of dimes and using them in soda machines. Dad brought the young lad into the local police station and was talking to him. Dad asked him for his id. As the kid was opening his wallet, a joint fell out. The kid’s face dropped to the floor! Dad just smiled, told him to put it back in his wallet and then kept talking about his pennies-to-dime actions.
I have begun going through his daily reports from this time, and it is amazing how many cases he worked on — and closed. He was very good at this.
On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, TX. Dad was called in immediately and posted to the Johnson Ranch, which is located west of Austin, TX. Dad also appears in the Warren Report several times as he investigated a potential suspect in the assassination.
1965 – Dad’s hard work was rewarded in 1965 when he was transferred to Washington, DC. His first assignment was in the Protective Research Section, which kept track of people who threatened to kill the President. Then was put on the detail protecting Vice-President Hubert Humphrey.
During his time on the protective detail assigned to Vice President, Humphrey made a trip to Vietnam. This was during the war. During that trip, VP Humphrey visited the 25th Infantry Division’s headquarters, which was said to be completely safe. After the war, it was uncovered that the Viet Cong had constructed a huge, deep, underground complex directly underneath the 25th Division headquarters.
1967 – Dad was transferred to Kansas City and was assigned to the protection detail for former President Harry Truman.
Later that year, he was transferred to Wichita, KS, as the Resident Agent . As Resident Agent, he covered most of central and western Kansas.
It was during his time in Wichita, while returning home, his car hit an icy patch of road, forcing the car into the central, grassy median. Dad saw a bridge support ahead, and just had time to tighten his seatbelt before crashing into it. He survived, thank goodness.
1970 – Dad was promoted to the Special Agent in Charge of the field office in El Paso, TX, during the summer of 1970. I remember being in the car with Mom, and cousin Billy, when Dad asked, “So Jimmie, what would you think of moving to El Paso?” I said, “Okay, I guess. Where is El Paso?”
1973 – Dad was transferred back to Washington DC to organize and direct a protective detail for Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. The detail grew from just a few agents to a full fledged detail of around 55 men while he was in charge.
This was a scary time in the world and Henry Kissinger was flying all over, trying to keep the peace.
I remember one time, I overheard the TV say something about a shooting on the plane that was transporting Kissinger, and that a Secret Service agent was injured. I had remained in El Paso, so I call Mom up right away. Apparently, an Uzi had not been secured properly, and had fallen to the floor after Kissinger had deplaned. An agent was grazed as the Uzi went off when it hit the floor. It was NOT Dad!
Another story, we invited Kissinger to my first marriage. We sent the invitation directly to the White House. Some months later, Dad and Kissinger were walking somewhere, and Kissinger turns to Dad and says, “Jim, do you have a child getting married?” This surprised Dad, and he replied “Yes.” Kissinger continued, “They should have sent the invitation to Nancy, [his wife]. She would have sent a nice present.” I never knew if Dad was embarrassed about that or not.
1975 – Dad moved to the Inspection Division in Washington.
1977 – Dad was transferred back to Kansas City to become the Special Agent in Charge of the Kansas City Field Office in 1977. He stayed at this until he retired from Secret Service in 1983. He was offered a promotion before he retired, but it would have meant returning to Washington DC, and he decided he could not do that to Mom.
Dad had his first back surgery in 1977. He initially hurt his back while jogging on a snow covered track.
NOTE: While in the Secret Service, Dad protected every president from Eisenhower through the elder George Bush, (Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, G. H. W. Bush (Note: Bush was Vice President when Dad protected him). He also protected King Hussein of Jordan, President Sadat of Egypt, Presidents of Nicaragua, Romania, Bolivia; Cabinet Members of Israel and many others. If I remember right, King Hussein really liked Dad and offered him a limousine. Dad had to refuse.
After retiring, Dad took the job of head of security for the Federal Disbursing centers. This was a new job and was created when the government recognized the need for tighter security on the centers that mailed all the Social Security and tax refund checks out to the public. Dad was over both the physical security as well as the new field of electronic security.
1982 – Dad had his second back surgery.
1988 – In 1988, Dad became president of GEHA (Gov’t Employees Health Association). He had been on the Board of Directors for several years. He served as president until 1992. He was well liked by the employees.
One story that exhibits what kind of president, (and what kind of man), he was is this. Being on the board of GEHA was his first experience in the private, corporate world. He was amazed at the money board members were paid, and kept asking for explanations as to why they were paid so much. This was even more important to Dad because GEHA operated as a private, non-profit business. When he became President, he made changes to try to reign the board member’s pay in. I’m not sure the board liked this too much, but he was so good for the company as a leader, he stayed president for 4 years.
While President of GEHA (Gov’t Employees Health Association), he testified in Washington DC before the Subcommittee on Compensation and Employee Benefits on July 11, 1990.
1992 – Dad retired from GEHA and retired for good, from the wage earning business. He started playing golf and taking trips with friends.
1996 – On August 29, 1996, Mom’s Dad, (my Grandpa Todd) passed away. Mom and Dad had been making multiple trips from Lenexa, (a suburb of Kansas City where they lived), down to Pawnee to help out Grandma and Grandpa as much as they could. After Grandpa passed away, they felt the need to move to Stillwater to be close to Grandma Todd. So they did. I’m not sure the date they actually moved to Stillwater.
Over the next fourteen years, Dad kept busy playing golf, traveling, and being a volunteer for the local CASA group. CASA is a children’s advocacy program which appoints a CASA representative to children in the legal system. The CASA person is there to represent the child. Dad was excellent in this, using his investigator background
2001 – 2002 – Dad had two rotator cuff surgeries to repair his shoulders he injured when he traveled to a nearby town to help them clear away post-tornado rubble.
2010 – In 2010, Mom and Dad decided it was time to move close to one of their children. So they moved from Stillwater down to Fort Worth, TX, to be really close to their daughter Patricia. They moved into a three tier establishment — independent living / assisted living / nursery care. Dad said he did not want to move again. This is understandable, because at 79, he basically packed up the whole Stillwater house, got it ready to sell, and got it moved down to FTW. Amazing.
During the early to mid-2010s, Dad’s health was good. They made lots of friends and really enjoyed their time there.
August, 2013 – Dad suffered the first in a series of strokes that would plague him the rest of his life. This first stroke hinder his mobility for a while, but somehow took away his ability to read. This was potentially disastrous, because Dad loved to read. Over the next years, he worked with rehab people and was able to read words with three letters or less. If he really studied, he could make out longer words, but it was a laborious task for him. Yet, he still opened the paper each morning and read as much as he could. If he saw an interesting article, he would ask Mom to read it to him.
October, 2015 – Dad had his right hip replaced. He had been in quite a bit of pain and decided he needed to do something. The surgery went fine, but the first night after the operation, he woke up confused, and still partially under the anesthetic. I was up in Fort Worth for the operation. He called me in the middle of the night and said he needed me to come to the hospital. This was the only time he made such a request. Of course, I drove the five minutes over to the hospital, talked to the nurses, and then spent the night with Dad in his room. He was having trouble coming out of the anesthetic and kept thinking we were in a hotel, but couldn’t understand why there was a big window open in the room. He stayed confused, but stayed very calm. The next morning, he was back to normal. It has been one of the best days of my life.
November 22, 2020 – Dad fell getting out of the shower. He had a pretty severe head injury. The ambulance took him to the hospital. And there he stayed until …
December 9, 2020 – My Dad passed away from this physical world.
Several years earlier, he had told me that he could not die before Mom did, because she needed him to take care of her. I have no doubt that his heart, his soul kept his body living far past its designed date.
It is hard to understand how this physical world has kept on without him here with us. He provided strength, courage, knowledge, laughs, and guidance to so many — no one more than me. It is a testament to his trueness that we are able to continue without him by our side. He made sure that his love, his lessons, his laugh was strong enough to continue with us after his body was gone.
There is not a moment that goes by that I don’t miss you tremendously Dad.