Funeral service for Don L. Tedder will be at 10:00am Saturday, February 4, 2017 in the Becker-Rabon Funeral Home Chapel with Rev. Randy Shorter, Pastor of Bethel Assembly of God, Lawton officiating.

Burial with Military Honors will be in Sunset Memorial Gardens.

Don Lacy Tedder, 100, Lawton passed away Monday, January 30, 2017 in Lawton.  He was born April 8, 1916 in Newport, Oklahoma to Homer H. and Vallie Mae (Ellis) Tedder.  He was schooled in the Carter County and Marlow school systems.  He married Helen Harrold of Lawton on December 25, 1941.  She passed away in March of 1995.  Mr. Tedder served two years in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) at Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, which he considered to be a very rewarding experience.  He worked for Bateson Construction Co, of Dallas, TX for 38 years as superintendent and project manager.  Projects completed under his management were the layout and first 48 buildings at Plattsburg Air Force Base, New York; the staff headquarters building and physical education complex at the US Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs, CO; the first seven buildings on the campus of the University of Texas San Antonio; and the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library and the LBJ School of Public Affairs on the Campus of the University of Texas at Austin.  He had a privileged relationship with the President and Mrs. Johnson.  At the beginning of WW II, the Bateson Company was a defense contractor working on military installations.  Mr. Tedder was saw-yard foreman for cutting all framework for these projects: approximately 350 TO buildings at Fort Sill; US Air Force Bases at Waco, Del Rio and Dalhart, TX; Will Rogers at Oklahoma City; and Blytheville, AR.  The Bateson Company acquired three 6-month World War II draft deferments for Mr. Tedder.  He was inducted into the Army in September 1943, trained at Camp Abbot, OR and served in Saipan and Okinawa campaigns.  He was honorably discharged as a T/Sgt.  Mr. Tedder was a pre-war working friend of Lawton's own Bob Johnson (LTC Robert S. Johnson).  He was a fighter pilot in WW II with 27 confirmed victories in Germany.  He was instrumental in acquiring recognition of Johnson at Lawton's regional airport.  From a depression-era 11th grader, cotton picker, ditch digger to manager of multi-million dollar construction projects, together with his WW II record of four NCO stripes in 8 months, his achievements were quite notable.

He is survived by one son and daughter-in-law Stephen H. and Lynn Tedder of Tulsa, OK, one sister Jewell McGinnis of Golden, CO, nephews Travis McGinnis of Colorado, David McGinnis of Wyoming, Philip Tedder of Oregon, Dennis A. Tedder of Katmandu, Nepal, and two nieces, Phyllis Young of Lawton and Virginia O'Brien of New York.

He was preceded in death by his parents, wife, a sister Clemmie D. Ross, two brothers, Dow T. Tedder and James Jerome Tedder, brother-and sister-in-law John C. Young and Pauline Harrold Young, brother-and sister-in-law James A. Harrold, Jr., and Beryl T. Harrold, and two nephews, David S. Harrold and Charles Jerome Tedder.

* Mr. Tedder wished to thank Daryl Birdwell, MD, and Robert Sweeney, MD for their dedicated attention and care.*