Bert Cecil McCaskey

1905-1982

Born 1905

Died 1982

Father: William L. McCaskey

Mother: Eliza Jane Ankrom

Children include Leta

Bert Cecil McCaskey was born on 18 July 1905, by his headstone, and grew up in the dry wheat and cattle country of northwest Oklahoma. He was the son of William L. McCaskey and Eliza Jane Ankrom, who had married in Polk County, Missouri, in 1888. His older brother John Franklin was born there in 1898, and the family came to Oklahoma before Bert was born. His father died on 5 February 1913, when Bert was seven, and his mother raised him alone; both lie in Bethel Cemetery at Fairview, Major County. The school census of those years lists him in the Longdale district of Blaine County, just south of Fairview, with his father as parent in 1913 and his mother from 1915. He and Icy Vera Wilcox, ten years younger, born at Fairview in 1915, had their children in the 1930s and 1940s: Roberta Pauline on 5 December 1934, Patsy Mae on 23 December 1935, Leta Lavone on 31 March 1939, all born in rural Major County, then J. C. about 1942 and Virginia, called Ginger.

In April 1940 the family was farming in Crowell Township, Major County: Bert, 33, Icy, written Ley by the census taker, 25, Roberta, 5, Patsy, 4, and Leta Lavaughn, 1. The girls went to Cheyenne Valley country school. When Roberta was 14, about 1949, the family moved to Woodward, the county seat forty miles northwest, and the April 1950 census found them there: Bert, 44, Icy, Roberta, 15, Patsy, 14, Lavone, 11, and J. C., 8. Bert C. McCaskey and Icy appear in the Woodward city directories from 1952 to 1972.

On 21 December 1951, in Harper County next door, Bert McCaskey, 45, and Icy Wilcox, 36, took out a marriage licence. Their children were by then aged nine to seventeen, so this was either a remarriage after a parting or a late formal marriage of a long-standing union; the records do not say which.

He died on 7 July 1982 at Enid, eleven days short of 77, and was buried in Elmwood Cemetery at Woodward, section 6, block 2, lot 8. The pink granite stone reads "BERT C. McCASKEY. JULY 18, 1905. JULY 7, 1982. AT REST WITH GOD." Icy was laid beside him in 2001 under a matching stone.

Parents

William L. McCaskey 1867-1913 Eliza Jane Ankrom 1869-1950

Children

Leta Lavone McCaskey 1939-2021

Sources

Find a Grave memorial 49960950, headstone photograph.

Ladusau-Evans Funeral Home and Crematory, Enid, Oklahoma (ladusauevans.com/obituaries/smith-lavone); also the Enid News and Eagle obituary pages and FamilySearch, United States Obituary Records 2014-2023 (ark 1:1:XMZY-W9VV).

United States Census, 1940, Major County, Oklahoma (ark 1:1:VBVP-NPW) and 1950, Woodward, Oklahoma (ark 1:1:6FS8-NTY1), through FamilySearch.

Oklahoma, County Marriages, 1890-1995, through FamilySearch (ark 1:1:VRQ9-93Y).

Lanman Funeral Home, Inc., Helena, Oklahoma, obituary of Roberta Morrison, July 2025 (lanmanfuneralhome.com); also legacy.com, 17 July 2025.

Find a Grave memorial 49960950 with headstone photograph; 1940 census Major County (FamilySearch 1:1:VBVP-NPW); 1950 census Woodward (1:1:6FS8-NTY1); Oklahoma county marriages 1890-1995 (1:1:VRQ9-93Y); United States city and business directories (1:1:DTN8-Y1W2 and others); obituaries of Lavone Smith (Ladusau-Evans Funeral Home, Enid, December 2021) and Roberta Morrison (Lanman Funeral Home, Helena, July 2025).; Oklahoma school records 1895-1992 (1:1:Q2LQ-F8DK, 1:1:Q2LS-NNP8, 1:1:Q2L3-M4HV); Find a Grave memorials 25039109 (W. L. McCaskey) and 25039026 (Eliza Jane McCaskey); Missouri county marriage records (1:1:C396-GG2M).

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Cite: Heirology, "Bert Cecil McCaskey (1905-1982)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/bert-cecil-mccaskey-1905-1982-a547a9.