Keith Exie Boyd

Keith was born in Wewoka OK to Exie Leon and Jane Elaine Boyd on October 11, 1954. He was the youngest of eight children. Keith attended school in Eufaula OK, Atoka OK, Fort Smith, Ark and Midwest City, OK. He graduated from Midwest City High School in 1972. Keith worked as a manual machinist in the oilfield and aerospace industry for over 35 years. Keith was an accomplished artist and an excellent cook. He loved the OK Sooners, especially football and both the OKC Thunder and Boston Celtics NBA teams. He loved all animals, especially his beloved Chinese Shar Peis.

He was married to Mary Stalnaker on August 29th, 1988 in San Antonio Texas. Good friends, Jeane and Kelly Platt accompanied them on their wedding trip. He is survived by his wife, Mary Stalnaker-Boyd of Midwest City, a brother, Darrell Boyd and his wife Charlotte of Moore OK, a sister, Nancy Williams of Wellington, Kansas, and 4 sister in laws, Connie Turner of Vinita, OK, Alda Boyd of Wellington Kansas, Cindy Boyd, of Caldwell Kansas and Barbara Stalnaker of Kennebunk, Maine. Keith is also survived by 6 nephews, 5 nieces, and many great nieces and nephews. Also surviving him is his God-daughter and her husband, Casey and John White, his longtime best friend, Rick Sims of Cushing, OK, good friends, Kelly and Jeane Platt of Luther OK and his Shar Pei buddy, Boomer. A daughter, Kaci Sawyer also survives him. He is preceded in death by his parents, Exie and Elaine Boyd, 4 brothers, Jerry, Duane, Bill and Kenneth Boyd, one sister, Phyllis Donaldson and a nephew, Larry Boyd. Two of his beloved Shar Peis, Wrinko and Sunshine also preceded him in death.

A memorial service will be held on Saturday, December 7, 2013 at 10 am at the Bill Eisenhour Funeral Home, Del City, OK. In honor of Bedlam football, attendees are encouraged to wear their favorite team apparel. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations in Keith’s name to the Central Oklahoma Humane Society, 9300 N. May Avenue, Ste. 400-281 Oklahoma City, OK 73120 or the Midwest City Animal Shelter, 100 N. Midwest City, OK 73110. The family wishes to thank all of Keith’s physicians and the staff in the ICU of Midwest Regional Hospital for their excellent care to Keith and their kindness to the family.

MY REFLECTIONS OF KEITH—BY MARY STALNAKER-BOYD

Keith’s obituary gives a very brief overview of his life. Below are my thoughts and memories of a man I met and fell in love with over 33 years ago.

Our story began on an evening in late June, 1980. Keith was visiting friends in the house next door to my home. He saw me out in my back yard getting ready to mow the yard. He asked me if I wanted him to mow it and I turned him down. I did that because I thought he was one of the young guys that had asked me to hire them to mow my yard that same morning. He wasn’t one of those 2 guys, but he stayed leaning on the fence and watched me mow the yard. We started talking and he asked if I wanted to go to a movie. Thus, our first date! Keith’s interest in action/science fiction films was evident that evening as the movie he wanted to see for the 2nd time was “The Emperor Strikes Back”. It was sold out at the local theater, so we went to see “The Island”. Not the best movie ever made, but special as it was what we saw on that first night. We spent the rest of the summer getting to know each other. Our first July 4th holiday was spent with my friend, Jeane Platt at Lake Thunderbird and later at a party in my neighbor’s back yard. It was a fast moving romance and by early October and his 26th birthday, we were a “couple”.

In 1988, we were married in San Antonio, Texas. I guess we eloped since we didn’t tell many people of our plans. My friend, Jeane Platt and I were going to attend a professional meeting in that town and decided we would take our guys along with us. Keith and I decided it was time to get married, so on Monday, August 29th, 1988 we were married by Justice of the Peace, Jimmy Gutierrez. Our dear friends, Jeane and Kelly Platt were our witnesses. I think we are still the only couple to marry at an American Public Human Service Association meeting. We spent a few days in San Antonio and at Padre Island before heading home. A couple of days later, Keith’s sister-in-laws, Charlotte Boyd and Cindy Boyd surprised us with a wedding cake and a little wedding “reception”.

Over our years together we had opportunities to visit many other places together, including Boston MA, Kennebunk, ME, New Orleans LA, San Francisco CA, Orlando FL, Branson MO, & Colorado Springs, CO. We had hopes to visit Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon. Keith would have loved both places.

Keith’s was a man of many loves and talents.

• He was a machinist by trade and a very good one at that. At most of his places of employment, customers asked for him to do their work due to his precise eye for detail.

• He was also an excellent cook. He soon started adding to my modest array of spices and seasonings from basic salt, pepper and garlic salt to cupboards stuffed with various seasonings. In our current home we have at least 3 shelves of spices and amazingly he used each one of them at some time. Keith was famous for his excellent cooking on the grill. Everyone wanted to enjoy a steak, hamburger or ribs that he cooked.

• Keith was a talented artist. He loved to draw with charcoal and pencil. He mostly liked to do drawings from other pictures or still arrangements. Our home showcases many of his drawings and he gave several to other family members. The last picture he drew was from a photograph of Baylee Almond (one of the children killed in the OKC 1995 bombing) and her mother.

• Keith also loved music, with his favorites being “good” rock and roll and jazz. Keith has an extensive collection of vinyl albums and CD’s. He once vowed to not have a CD player until 2000, but got one in 1997 and never looked back. Since our first date was a movie, it became apparent that he loved a good movie. Over our 33 years together, we saw every Star Trek, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Superman, Batman and the Marvel comics movies made, at least once!!! However some of the movies we saw most recently included “Lincoln” and the 3-D version of the “Wizard of OZ”. We have enjoyed home movies on a VCR, DVD player and now a Blu-Ray. Again, we have an extensive selection of movies to go along with the CD’s.

• Keith also loved to collect what I called “knick-knacks” and classic miniature cars. Keith was a kid at heart and these were his toys. We also have all kinds of sports memorabilia, especially, OU, OSU (mine), OKC Thunder and Boston Celtics. One of Keith’s most favorite events was the opportunity to see the Boston Celtics play in the Boston Garden.

• Speaking of sporting events, Keith loved to watch OU football. He wasn’t always the best fan when they lost, but by the next week, he was ready to cheer them on again. We had many good times watching the games with our dear friends and neighbors, Jerry and Sheron Holliman and then he would talk about the game on the telephone with his best friend, Rick Sims. Since I was a graduate of both OSU and OU, I cheered for both teams except when they played each other and then we were a “house divided”. It was always in fun and I never really minded if OU won since it was still one of the schools I attended.

• Keith loved to collect ball caps and t-shirts. He had something from every trip we took together or ones from when I traveled without him. He had a shirt and/or a ball cap for every type of sporting team, plus many patriotic ones. The t-shirts and a ball cap was a mainstay of his wardrobe. Every once in a while, he would be sporting a hat other than a ball cap, but those were always unique and had a story behind them.

• Keith loved all animals. He couldn’t watch any news event that had a story about an animal being abused, nor did he want to watch a show if an animal got hurt or died. I already had a little mutt dog, Patch, when we met that he soon became fond of, but in 1990, he came home from shopping and announced that he had found his dog. It was a Chinese Shar-Pei puppy on sale at the local pet store. We went back the next day and brought home our first Shar-Pei. He named him Wrinko and he was definitely his dog. We added a little girl Shar-Pei, Sunshine, a year later. Our family for years was Keith, me and our 3 dogs. From the early 1990’s until 2002, we grew older as did Wrinko and Sunshine. In 2002, we added another Shar-Pei to our family. We named him Boomer Pistol Pete, but he just went by Boomer. He was supposed to be a miniature and not weigh more than 35 lbs. However, since he was a year or two old, he has weighed 60-70 lbs. While Boomer became sort of a “Mama’s” boy, he is grieving now for the loss of his beloved Keith.

• The greatest loves of his life was his family. Keith was born the youngest of 8 children. His sister, Nancy, who was the youngest until he was born, was about 7 ½ years older than Keith. She had her own baby doll. He loved his big Sis very much and always wished he could do more for her. Keith was very close to his mother, especially since his Dad had to work out of town much of the time. His mom was the one who taught him how to cook. Her death when Keith was 19 was very hard on him and he missed her every day. His oldest brother, Duane was 18 years old when he was born and was soon married with children of his own. Duane’s children, Larry, Lisa and Brent were almost more like siblings than they were nieces and nephews. Over the years, he became close to his 3 other older brothers, Darrell, Bill and Kenny. Darrell is the brother who takes care of everyone else. Recently, he was enjoying spending more time with Darrell. Bill and Keith were a lot alike in that they tried to be gruff and were really just big Teddy Bears. Keith and Kenny both loved music. There tastes were different, but he was very proud of Kenny’s musical talents. Keith was only 9 years old when his other older sister, Phyllis Donaldson was killed in a car accident and his oldest brother, Duane, died in 1983. Although Keith and I did not have children, we were lucky to have many nephews, nieces, and their children to enjoy. Keith loved all of his nieces and nephews. In addition to nephews Larry and Brett Boyd, his other nephews were Danny Boyd, Darren Boyd, Jeremy Boyd and Jason Boyd. He considered my brother’s son, Dylan Stalnaker as his nephew also and was enjoying having him live here in OK. Keith had 5 special nieces, Lisa Oliver, Misty Antoine, Lynette Hibbs, Adana Touchatt and Dawn Lampkin. Keith enjoyed his many great nieces and nephews, but Dawn’s children, Meredith, Taylon and Devin Lampkin along with their father, Herb Lampkin held a special place in his heart. Another special young woman in his life was our God-Daughter, Casey White. When she was young, they had fun discussing their common interests of art and music. He was honored to be asked to participate in her wedding. Keith was enjoying getting to know Casey’s husband, John. On their last visit to our home, he had a great time talking with John about oilfield equipment. Lastly, Keith loved his friends and loved socializing with them. His best friend, Rick Sims was with him on the last evening in the hospital just like he was always there when Keith needed him. We had a cook-out with Rick, his lifelong companion, Judy May and our friends, Jeane and Kelly Platt just before Keith became ill. We all had a great time and it will remain a special memory for me.

I could go on forever with my memories of Keith. He was an extremely patriotic person and loved God in his own way. I was blessed to know and love such a diverse man for over 33 years and have him love me back. . I will miss him so much and will do my best to continue to enjoy those things that we shared together. I love you with all my heart, Keith Boyd.