Billy Orven Shanks

Billy Shanks Obituary Services honoring and remembering the life of Bill Shanks will be held at 2 PM Friday, September 4, 2020, at the First Baptist Church in Glenpool. Masks will be required and provided by Bixby Funeral Service. Interment will follow in the Bixby Cemetery. Bill will lie in state for viewing from 9 AM – 5 PM Thursday at the RiverCrest Chapel in Bixby. Bill passed away Monday afternoon, August 31, 2020, at Saint Francis Hospital. He was 81. Bill was born on January 30, 1939, near Bixby, the son of Orven and Ina (Ramey) Shanks. He was the third of five children and attended school in Glenpool. Bill was a great basketball player. He would eventually become a referee for the junior high school games. He graduated from Glenpool High School in 1957. Following high school, Bill met Myrna Watson through mutual friends while out on a Sunday drive. Myrna remembered his striking good looks from meeting him just a few days earlier at a party. The couple began dating just before her 17th birthday and married January 14, 1960, in Sapulpa. Bill and Myrna just celebrated 60 wonderful years together. Bill worked hard his entire life right up until the day he became ill on July 22, 2020. Early in his career, Bill worked nights on a drilling rig while Myrna stayed home with their newborn baby. A welder by trade, he obtained employment with better pay and hours at Miller Sand Pump. Bill spent over 30 years with IMCO (International Metal Recycling), where he retired as a maintenance supervisor. He installed furnaces that melted aluminum metal in facilities all over the United States and Mexico. Since 1985, Bill operated Central Machine and Metals, offering repair work to many independent oilfield operators in the area. Bill could fix anything and everything you brought his way! An outdoorsman at heart, Bill spent many long days on Ft. Gibson Lake fishing for spoonbill with his family. His art of snagging spoonbill from the bank will not soon be forgotten. Bill taught his grandsons, Clayton and Adam, to become quite the fisherman. He also loved deer hunting, taking numerous trips throughout the years to Colorado, Wyoming, and even hunting trips abroad to Canada. Bill was preceded in death by his daughter, Lisa Cox, his son, Billy Wayne Shanks, his brother, Alva Ray Shanks, and his sister, Wanda Lee Fulps. Surviving family members include his wife, Myrna; his daughter, Dana Marshall, and husband, Rich; six grandchildren: Tyler Cox, Tanner Shanks, Hunter Shanks, Ashley Rutter and husband Brett, Clayton Marshall and wife Samantha, and Adam Marshall; his great-grandchildren: Brett, Brady, Barrett, Abby, and a great-granddaughter on the way; his brother, Sam Shanks, his sister, Doris Shanks; and his sister in law, Christine Shanks. To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Billy Orven Shanks, please visit our floral store. Read More

Billy Orven Shanks

January 30, 1939 - August 31, 2020