Tommy Worthy

Tommy Jack Worthy was born in Durant, Okla. on Nov. 23, 1943, two days before Thanksgiving and during the middle of a world war that raged thousands of miles away in Europe and the Pacific Ocean. He died Thursday, Jan. 2, 2020, in Sherman, Texas, a stone’s throw from the birthplace of the American general who won that war and later became president, Dwight D. Eisenhower.

He was the second of three children for Jack and Connie Sullivan Worthy. His older sister, Adelyn, died from an illness when she was a year old, which devastated his parents. Her death led his father to the ministry. Throughout Tommy’s early years, he lived in Tishomingo, Oklahoma City and Ardmore. The family then moved to the family farm in Albany.

Tommy worked with his father raising cattle. He also worked on a construction crew for his uncle, Bill Worthy. When his family went into the Kirby Vacuum Cleaner business, Tommy worked refurbishing vacuum cleaners, first in Durant and later in Tulsa. When Jack Worthy passed away in 1973, and the business was closed, Tommy went to work for the city of Broken Arrow and worked in various positions until his retirement in 2005.

In 2006, after the death of his mother, Tommy moved from Tulsa to Featherstone Assisted Living in Durant. His love for sports often filled the hallways with the sounds of football and basketball games. He loved the old classic westerns – Gunsmoke, Bonanza, The Big Valley. He was also fond of Bingo, especially when he won packages of cookies.

Featherstone became Tommy’s home, and the residents and staff became part of his family. They went far beyond what was required for his care. The kitchen staff would occasionally even fix him a late-night bowl of ice cream. The rest of the staff ran countless errands for him.

He was very interested in the lives of those around him and concerned for their welfare. Recently, when he was in the hospital in Durant, he was worried about a resident at Featherstone who wasn’t eating enough.

No one knew until the last days of his life, that he was full of cancer, but the nurses said that he never complained.

Tommy was preceded in death by his sister, Adelyn Star, and his parents. He is survived by a son, Michael, and three grandchildren, Shelby, Mikayla, and Ryan, a sister, Anna Long, her husband, Bud, a niece, Kristen Amanda, a great-nephew, Andrew, and many cousins and friends.

We will miss his laugh that made us smile.

A service in honor of his life will be at 2 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2020 at the Holmes~Coffey~Murray Chapel in Durant, Oklahoma. His final resting place will be the Highland Cemetery in Durant, Okla.

Services are under the direction of Holmes~Coffey~Murray Funeral Home in Durant.
www.holmescoffeymurray.com