William Dorn Hicks

William Dorn Hicks, son of William Otis and Leta Maud (Hoyt) Hicks, was born February 23, 1924 in Avery, Lincoln County, Oklahoma. His mother lived until he was fifteen months old. At her death he was taken into the home of his aunt and uncle, Guy and Edith (Hicks) Givens and their daughter Mary Lou of Kendrick, Lincoln County, Oklahoma, where he was raised as a son and brother. His father remained a part of his life. All pre-deceased him. Following graduation from Kendrick High School in 1941, he attended the University of Oklahoma for a year prior to entering the U.S. Army a day before his nineteenth birthday in February, 1943. He was in the combat infantry in the 36th Armored Infantry Regiment, Third Armored Division, serving in four campaigns in the European Theatre of Operations. In March, 1945, while serving as a Rifle Squad Leader in the Battle of the Bulge in Germany, he was severely wounded. He and was hospitalized until May, 1947 when he was discharged. He was awarded six military decorations and citations, including the Purple Heart Medal. Following his discharge he enrolled at Central State College (now University of Central Oklahoma), Edmond, Oklahoma where he was awarded a B.S. Degree in Business Administration in 1950. In April, just prior to his graduation, he and Virginia Lee Roberts were married. She was a year away from a degree at OU so they established a home in a Quonset hut on OU's South Campus, and he enrolled in graduate school. When he was sufficiently recovered from recurrence of a wound, he began work as a Federal Civil Servant. He worked for the Social Security Administration in Lafayette, Louisiana, El Dorado, Arkansas, McAlester, Oklahoma, and, Shawnee, Oklahoma before retiring in the early 1980's after thirty-four years of federal service. He and Virginia moved to Oklahoma City in the 1990s, and Virginia died in January, 2015. Son William S. Hicks lives in Fredericksburg, Texas; daughter Leta Hicks lives in Davie, Florida; son and daughter-in-law Phillip and Teri Hicks live in Kremlin, Oklahoma; and two grandsons, Joshua and Jacob Hicks live in Midland, Texas.