Funeral services for Charles Douglas Faulkner will be Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2006, at 10 a.m. at Henninger-Allen Funeral Home. Burial will follow in Memorial Park Cem-etery.
Charles Douglas Faulkner was born in the small timber and saw-milling community of Graysonia, Arkansas, April 12, 1922. Charles was one of 13 children born to Joseph Hardy Faulkner and Augusta Jennings Faulkner. Charles lived to be 84 years old and died in Enid, Oklahoma, August 12, 2006, following a period of illness.
While Charles was a youth, the Joseph Hardy Faulkner family moved from Graysonia, Arkansas, to another saw-milling town nearby named Delight, Arkansas. In 1942 Charles graduated from Delight High School and married his high school sweetheart, Jessie Pearl Lewal-len, who had also graduated from Delight High School that same year.
In 1943, the couple and their six-week old daughter, Charlotte Ann, moved to Bethany, Oklahoma where Charles entered Bethany Nazarene College to study for the ministry. He was also employed by the Bethany Fire Department and lived in an apartment above the fire station near the college. In the early 1940s, charles worked at the U.S. Army Ammunition National Guard in Hope, Arkansas, testing heavy artillery shells. In July of 1945, a son, Douglas Ray Faulkner was born. Charles, Jessie, Charlotte and Douglas comprised the immediate family of Charles Faulkner. Charles became a minister and served several churches in Oklahoma, Arkansas, New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado.
Charles completed two college degrees (a Bachelor’s degree from Arkansas State College and a Master’s degree from Western State College of Colorado) and became a teacher, principal, and at retirement was a school superintendent in Caddo Gap, Arkansas. While an English teacher in Casa Grande, Arizona, Charles (Mr. Faulkner to his students) received an outstanding English teacher award from Arizona State University. Charles also served as school superintendent in his and Jessie’s hometown of Delight, Arkansas. Jessie taught elementary school in Delight during this same period of time.
Charles enjoyed working with horses and mules and trained some of the carriage horses that were used at the Arlington Hotel in Hot Springs, Arkansas. One of the most popular horses, “Smokey Boy,” a large Appaloosa, is still pulling a carriage occasionally for the Doug and Donna Faulkner family. After retirement, Charles en-joyed helping with horses, gardening and maintaining facilities for Faulkner Corporation, an oil and gas exploration and production company here in Enid. Charles was interested in the oil and gas business but more interested in the grandkids and the horses.
Charles and Jessie Faulkner’s daughter, Charlotte Ann Potter and her husband, Dr. Gary Potter reside in College Station, Texas. Charlotte and Gary are both educators. Charlotte spent 27 years with A&M Consolidated High School and Gary was head of the horse science program at Texas A&M. They have one son, Bill Doug Potter of Bentonville, Arkansas. Bill and his wife, Kathy have two sons, Matthew and Daniel.
Charles and Jessie’s son, Douglas Ray Faulkner and his wife, Donna E. Faulkner live in Enid. Their daughter, Angela Rae Faulkner, preceded her grandfather, Charles Faulkner in death in April 2002. Doug and Donna’s son, Drew Faulkner and his wife, Brittany reside in Edmond, Oklahoma with their three children, London, Range, and River.
Private condolences may be made at
EnidWeCare.com.