Lawrence Peck
Lawrence Peck, called Larry, was born on 9 January 1936 at Guthrie, Logan County, Oklahoma. He was the youngest of the three sons of Jamie A. Peck and Marybelle Williams, after Jamie Eugene, called Jim, born in 1929, and Lee Warren, born in 1932. The family was living at Guthrie, and the census of 1940 found them there.
In 1945 the family moved to a ranch near Ochelata, in Washington County, near the Osage County line. In 1950 the census found them in the Bigheart district of Osage County, the country around Barnsdall: Jamie, Mary B., Warren and Lawrence. Lawrence went to school at Ramona, a few miles south. He played basketball and graduated in 1955 as class president and salutatorian.
He went on to Oklahoma State University at Stillwater and took a Bachelor of Science in natural science. At Stillwater he met Velta Ruth Langley, the mother of his children. He came back to Ramona to teach math and science, and he drove the school bus as well. His father sat on the school board, and he stepped down from it so that his son could be hired.
After three years Lawrence went into the aerospace industry. He worked as a control analyst for North American Aviation on the Apollo program, the effort to put men on the moon. Teaching drew him back. He taught math for Tulsa Public Schools while he earned a master's degree in counseling at the University of Tulsa, and he served as a middle school counselor until he retired in 1992. In retirement he taught math as an adjunct professor at Tulsa Community College.
He lived most of his adult life in Tulsa, but he kept his parents' ranch outside Ochelata. He drove up regularly to work the land and see to the cattle. He liked classical music and old radio broadcasts, and he liked to read and to work with his hands. He once rescued an old rocking chair that someone had thrown out and refinished it. He was interested in family history, and with his wife Nanette he travelled to England to visit the graves of his ancestors.
His brother Jim died in 1998, Nanette in December 2020, and Lee Warren in September 2022. Lawrence died at his home in Bartlesville on 22 June 2025, aged 89. He left Velta; his children Bill Peck, married to Tammy, Rosemary Chronister, married to Dewayne, and Bonnie Patterson, married to Eddie; five grandchildren and a number of great-grandchildren. He was buried in the Ochelata Cemetery, where his parents lie.
Sources
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Cite: Heirology, "Lawrence Peck (1936-2025)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/lawrence-peck-1936-2025-f89db7.