Ancestors

Billy Saunders

Billy Earl Saunders, known as Bill, was born on 3 September 1951 at Barnsdall, an oil town in Osage County, Oklahoma. His parents were Cole Bill Saunders and Mildred Ann Brown. His mother's family, the Browns, had lived at Barnsdall since the 1920s. In 1950, the year before he was born, his parents and his older sister Margaret Ann were living at Pawhuska, the Osage County seat.

He grew up in many places and went to many schools. He finished at Perry High School. His brothers and sisters were Margaret Ann, Betty Joyce, Dixie, Joyce, Tommy and Jimmy Wayne. Jimmy was born at Barnsdall in 1958 and died in 1989.

In the first week of June 1970 Bill, then living in Perry, took out a marriage license with Mary Ellen Hartung of Morrison. They married on 5 June 1970. Both were eighteen. Their first home was in Perry. After two years they moved to Morrison, where Mary Ellen's parents, Clarence and Marie Hartung, farmed, and they stayed there the rest of his life.

His working life ran through the Bud Warren horse ranch at Perry, Swan Rubber in Stillwater, and two big construction firms in Texas, Zachary and Brown and Root. Then he spent thirty-five years at National Standard in Stillwater. He finished with the Fred Wheatley Company of Morrison.

Bill and Mary Ellen had five children: Becky Ann in 1973, Ella, Tina, Julie in 1979, and Billy Earl II. They also took in numerous foster children. Becky died on her thirtieth birthday, 26 July 2003, at Pawnee. His father had died at Yale in 1988, and his mother died there in 2010.

Bill died at his home in Morrison on Tuesday, 13 October 2020, aged 69. His funeral was held on 24 October in the Dighton-Marler chapel at Stillwater, with Pastor Albert Quick of Sumner officiating. He is buried in Morrison Cemetery. His stone there is shared with Mary Ellen, with their wedding date, June 5, 1970, carved between their names under two linked rings.

Mary Ellen survived him, with Ella, Tina, Julie and Billy Earl II, ten grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. Two grandchildren, Scott and Rosemary Saunders, had died before him. Memorials went to the Sumner Baptist Church.

If Billy Saunders is in your family, start your own tree.

Researched October 2026. Cite: Heirology, "Billy Saunders (1951-2020)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/billy-saunders-1951-2020-9d74ce.