O. Harding

Oscar “Jack” Harding was born July 24, 1926 in Wagoner, Oklahoma to Martha Dunivan Harding and William A. Harding.  He was born with meningitis and told he would live less than a year.  However, by the time he was a year old, he was a healthy child.

Jack’s father died when he was five years old and his mother remarried Henry Floyd and the family moved to Missouri.

When Jack was eight, his family was in a car accident.  Jack was thrown from the car and his back was injured which did not heal correctly.  He eventually spent months in the Children’s Hospital in Oklahoma City and one year in a body cast.

Jack left school when he was seventeen and moved to California where he lied about his age so he could drive a Greyhound bus.  Years later he was proud to have completed his GED.  He worked for seventeen years as a manager with Beason Trucking and also drove a cattle truck for Feaster Cattle Company.  His favorite job was working for the State of Kansas at the Port of Entry outside of Kiowa.  He worked for the state for twenty-eight years and retired in 1994.  During 1968 to 1975 Jack also worked as a night relief patrol officer for the Kiowa Police Department.

Jack and Corine Sutherland were married in 1978 and she survives.  Before Jack and Corine moved to the Kiowa Manor, they were both active in the Congregational Church and the Senior Citizen’s Center.

Jack is preceded in death by his parents; one step-son, George; his sister, Beulah and his five brothers.

Survivors include his wife, Corine; two step-daughters, Susan (Robert) Helmke of Pratt and Kimberly (Pat) O’Grady of Cimarron; nephew, Gary (Pam) Green of Kiowa; eight grandchildren; fourteen great-grandchildren; many nieces and nephews and many friends.

On Monday, December 21, 2020 visitation will be at Lanman Funeral Home 10:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. with family present 2:00 p.m. until 5:00 p.m.  On Tuesday, December 22, 2020 a graveside service will be at 10:30 a.m. at Lewis Cemetery near Lewis, Kansas.  Arrangements are by Lanman Funeral Home, Inc. of Kiowa.  www.lanmanmemorials.com  Facebook:  Lanman Funeral Home Inc.

Memorials may be made to Wheatland Hospice or the Kiowa Manor through the funeral home.  The family requests no flowers.