Dad was born on March 14th, 1921 in Newalla Oklahoma and was the oldest of a family of 12. Growing up in the depression, time were hard. Dad was very much about family and was not a stranger to having much family responsibility at an early age. His father William Franklin Tucker was not in good health at a fairly young age. As the oldest child, Dad shared much of the burden as a "bread winner".

Our dad has told us many stories from his life:

When quite young dad was hoeing weeds in the garden. He did not notice his brother Claude (no longer living) behind him. When he raised the hoe it sank into Claude's head. If it were not for dad's quick thinking Claude would have bled to death. Dad stopped the bleeding by throwing dirt in the open gash in Claude's head. Claude lived because of dads quick thinking.

Dad was always very mechanically talented. He loved working with cars and planes. I remember a story. We have many memories of the old cars dad drove, a model A with a rumble seat. Dad spent many hours carting around our mother in this car. Taking her to picture shows etc.

In the 30's dad built an airplane from old car parts. Apparently the plane flew without incident.

As all young men of that era. Dad was called to service in WWII. In the war dad was an airplane mechanic working on the B17 bomber in England. He told us many stories from the war. Too many to tell here. When he arrived at the airfield in England it was night. Quite often German planes made air raids on the airfield. And many of the planes were shot down over the airfield. On that first night dad was curious and was walking around the airfield. And of course he was looking up at all the activity in the air. As he was walking he tripped and fell. When he turned around too see what tripped him it was a fallen German pilot. Many bombers were coming back from Germany, some could not land, from damage incurred in the fighting. Eventually they would crash. Nothing could be done to save them.

Dad loved to hunt and fish. But fishing was his passion. As children we often went camping and fishing as a family. After retirement his spent as much time as he could on the lake. He has told us many many stores from this time.

Dad loved to travel. We have many fond memories of summer vacations. On of the most memorable was a trip to Yellowstone in 1959 (two weeks before a great earth quake). We traveled it a old green 1952 Chevrolet Panel Truck. Dad called it the Tator Wagon because he bought it from a grocery store where it was used as a delivery truck. The oldest boys were planning to sleep in a tent. But several Grizzly bear sightings in the camp ground put an end to those plans. So three of the four children slept under Mom and Dads bed, A board across the bed of the Tator Wagon.