Orban S. Waggoner

Orban S. Waggoner passed from this life to the next on November 20, 2013. Orban was a lifelong farmer in the East Grand Plains area of the Pecos Valley. His parents, Benjamin Franklin Waggoner and Lenore Waggoner, were field workers in Oklahoma where Orban was born in 1918. They left Oklahoma in a covered wagon, settling in Roswell when Orban was 4 years old. Life was not easy in those days. They lived in a wooden shack, using old newspaper to fill cracks in the walls to keep the blowing dirt out. As Orban described it, “The poor people called us poor”. The Waggoner children worked with their parents in the apple orchards and cotton fields. At age 18, Orban moved out and hired on for a local farmer as a field hand, living in a tent at the edge of a cotton field. At age 23 he married Wanda Eberhart, and they moved into a small shack on the farm, nailing orange crates on the wall for cupboards. Orban and his wife worked long, hard hours in the fields. That hard work earned the respect of a farmer who loaned them the money to buy a small farm, which Orban repaid in record time. Orban was a successful farmer, and was highly respected for his honesty and integrity, his work ethic, and the fair manner in which he treated everyone, especially his field workers. Orban’s father was also a circuit preacher, traveling the area on horseback, buggy and Model T, baptizing converts in water tanks and the Pecos River. He eventually established Shady Grove Baptist Church. Orban’s mother played piano for the services, and Orban often said, “My mother was the most Christian person I’ve ever known”. Orban was an old-time, rugged man who believed the measure of a man was the willingness of that man to work hard to provide for his family. He took great pride in keeping a manicured yard, his gardens were the envy of his neighbors. He loved to tell jokes, and in his later years he enjoyed visiting with other ‘old-timers’ over a cup of coffee at the local donut shop or McDonalds. Orban was preceded in death by his parents, all his brothers and sisters, as well as second son, Dorman Waggoner. He married Marlene Shannon in 1990 who survives him at the family home. He is survived by his children Larry Waggoner, Terry Waggoner, and Tamara Toon, stepchildren Kay Bennett, Dickie Crow, Susan Shaw, and Randolph Crow, as well as grandchildren Christopher Waggoner, Anita Shanklin, Rhiannon Toon, Todd Waggoner, Dorman Waggoner Jr., Michelle Hamby and other family members. A memorial service will be held at 10:00 am on Saturday, November 30, 2013, at Anderson-Bethany Funeral Home Chapel. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that you make a donation to the Humane Society or a favorite charity. For I am convinced that neither death nor life…will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8

Orban S. Waggoner

March 24, 1918 - November 20, 2013