Tommy Joe Shimp

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Tommy Joe Shimp, 89, of Del City passed from this life to his rewards and joined a host of family and friends in Heaven on Nov. 9, 2019, in Oklahoma City. He was born April 8, 1930, in Bixby  to Thomas Jefferson Shimp and Grace (Adams) Davis.

Tommy was a pipe fitter and a member of Pipe Fitter Union #344. He served with the 45th Infantry Division in the U. S. Army in the Korean War as a medic and ambulance driver which led to his love of watching MASH on TV. He also enjoyed watching Gunsmoke.

It is appropriate that his first date with Pat Whitecotton involved an athletic event. Pat and some of her friends were sitting in a small shop in downtown Bokoshe, a small town in southeastern Oklahoma, when Tommy came by and asked her to go to a football game. She told him he would have to ask her mother if she could go: he did; they did, and the couple eventually got married in the Methodist Church in Spiro, on March 12, 1955.

Family was always a priority for Tommy and nothing thrilled him more than watching his kids and grandkids in their sporting events and other activities. He loved baseball and was a huge St. Louis Cardinals fan. He coached his sons’ Little League baseball team for 10 years. He was also talented in creating Indian headdresses, often designing the beads to match the color of the owner’s car. He even made a beautiful pink headdress to match family friend Jo Carrol Lee’s Mary Kay pink vehicle.

He was a member of Meadowood Baptist Church and Wickline United methodist church, both in Midwest City.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Grace Davis and Thomas Jefferson Shimp

Survivors include his wife, Pat (Whitecotton) Shimp of the home; son Rick and wife Roxanne of Choctaw; daughter, Tammy Allen and husband Steve of Spencer and son Tommy Jr. and wife Judy of McCurtain; grandchildren, Ryan Shimp, Rachel Ross and husband Don, Houston Shimp and wife Alicia, Rebekah Shimp, Hannah Rogers and husband Shane, Logan Shimp and wife Cidney, Rachel Shimp, Taylor Croslin and husband Michael, Courtney Markes and husband Jake; great-grandchildren Cameron, Talon, Michaela and Caleb Shimp; Zoe and Zach Ross, Janslee and Houston Jr. Shimp, Piper and Lily Rogers and Beckett Markes.

Funeral services were Saturday, Nov. 16, 2019, at the McCurtain Free Will Baptist Church, with interment in Miners Cemetery under direction of Asa Smith Funeral Service, Harrah. Condolences, tributes and memories can be shared with the family on the funeral home website www.asasmith.net.

Stigler News-Sentinel

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