Larry Gene Wilder

LARRY GENE WILDER

Larry Gene Wilder, 79, of Harrah was born July 6, 1945, in Watonga, OK to Charles Waldo and Mildred Rateliff Wilder. He passed from this life to his rewards in Heaven and a glorious reunion with friends and family on June 8, 2025, at his home.

The family moved to Jones, OK during his first year and Larry grew up there, attending all but his third-grade year in the Jones Schools System. That one year the family lived on a horse farm outside Warner, OK. Larry started his life vocation early when he took a job with the IGA Store in Jones and learned to cut meat.

This was interrupted in 1964 when he chose to join the US Air Force where he served as a fuel specialist for their airplanes. In the fall of 1968, he mustered out of the Air Force and moved to Shawnee, OK to work. There he met his wife, Mary Esther Savage at Oklahoma Avenue Baptist Church where she was the organist. They were married July 10, 1970.

He continued his career as a meat cutter, store manager, director of stores for Delling Enterprise and back to his love as meat market manager for 38 years when he retired. He was then able to continue another love. Larry and Mary Esther traveled to many places in the United States and also in other countries, loving the sites and people they met in their travels.

The Lord had first place in Larry’s life. He was a faithful Christian, attending the local Southern Baptist Church wherever they lived. The last 20 years, he served his Lord as Sunday School teacher and deacon at First Baptist Church in Newalla. Larry was a giving person and when he saw a need, he would fill it, not wanting any praise for doing the Lord’s will.

Larry was preceded in death by his parents, Charlie and Mildred Wilder and his sister, Emma Wilder Robinson.

He is survived by his wife Mary Esther; their three children, Darwin Wilder and Vicky Richartz of Oklahoma City; Darwina Wilder Blackwell and husband Bruce of Oklahoma City; Rachel Wilder Sparks and husband Jay of Albuquerque, NM; three grandsons Jonah, Jeremiah and Joseph Sparks of Albuquerque, N.M. and many cousins, nieces and nephews and friends.

Services will be at 10 a.m. on Monday, June 16, 2025, at First Baptist Church, Newalla, followed by interment at Jones IOOF Cemetery under direction of Asa Smith Funeral Service, Harrah.

Online condolences may be posted on www.asasmith.net