Memorial service for Dr. Loren McKeown will be 10:00 a.m. Thursday, November 30, 2017 in St. Paul's United Methodist Church with Rev. Lisa Beavers, Pastor officiating.

Interment with military honors will follow in Sunset Memorial Gardens under direction of Becker-Rabon Funeral Home.

Dr. Loren McKeown, age 82, Lawton, passed away Thursday, November 23, 2017.  The son of Roy and Jewell Chastain McKeown, Loren was born in Ada, Oklahoma, on December 16, 1934. He attended Ada public schools and East Central State College prior to service in the United States Marine Corps, 1953-56.

He earned bachelor's and master's degrees at the University of Oklahoma and a doctorate from Oklahoma State University. He taught English at Davenport, Oklahoma, High School, where he also served as principal. Moving then into higher education, he taught English at Peru State College in Nebraska and then at Cameron University in Lawton, Oklahoma, where he was chairman of the Language Arts Department for the first thirteen of twenty-eight years of service before retirement.

In addition to traditional English and American literature, Loren's teaching assignments included courses in composition, the English language, and the literature of American minorities, including African-American literature and a course in Native-American literature, which he initiated at Cameron.

Loren and Rebecca Lackey, of Wayne, Oklahoma, were united in marriage April 5, 1958.  His beloved wife of 59 years died the day following Loren's death in Oklahoma City.

Loren accepted Jesus Christ as his personal savior and was baptized in Ada First Baptist Church in July 1942. At the time of his death, he was a member of Lawton's St. Paul's United Methodist Church, where he had served on a number of committees, taught adult Sunday school, and was representative on the Cameron Campus Ministry board of directors.

Loren was preceded in death by his parents and his sister, Mary McKeown Davis.

Survivors include a daughter, Nancy and husband Dale of Cushing; three sons: Mike and wife Luciana of Marble Falls, Texas; Tom of Mustang; David and wife Tracy of Yukon; and daughter-in-law Patricia of Mustang. He is also survived by nine grandchildren: Sarah Dowell, Emily Dowell Love and husband Eric, Susan Dowell, Samuel McKeown and wife Jordynn, Sara Kelley, Chelsea McKeown Timmons and husband Chris, Grace McKeown, Daniel McKeown, and Ana McKeown, and nine great grandchildren.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Loren and Rebecca McKeown Endowed Scholarship in English Cameron University Foundation, 2800 W. Gore Blvd., Lawton, OK 73505 or to St. Paul's United Methodist Church 910 NW 38th St., Lawton, OK 73505.