Richard Leroy Vail

Richard Leroy Vail was born July 5th 1945 son of Willie Richard Vail and Annabelle Alexander in Centralia, Oklahoma,and passed away peacefully in his home August 9th, 2019. Richard grew up around Welch, Oklahoma and moved to So. Coffeyville, Oklahoma area where he lived and worked until 2018 when he moved to Ponca City, Oklahoma. Survivors include his wife, Judy Ann Vail; daughter, Jane Allison Smith; Brothers and their spouses, Stephen Leon Vail and Charlotte Vail, and Robert Eugene Vail and Shirley Vail.

Words of an Obituary rarely convey who a person really was in life other than names... dates.. work history... residency.. Seems so little in the effort of a life fully lived, a lifetime of memories made.. How difficult it is to express..to show that a person did indeed make a mark on the world..."The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Richard was the kind of man who literally walked 10 miles through a snowstorm to get medicine when it was needed.
Richard was the kind of man who worked so many jobs, and so hard at them, that he permanently crippled his hands in providing for his family.
Richard would help anyone, at anytime if they asked and he was more than willing to sit and shoot the breeze with anyone he met from any walk of life if they provided the opportunity. You had him at "Hello."
He was loyal to his bones and firmly rooted in his love of family. His entire family returned that love and loyalty 100 fold. We pranked him a little a few birthdays back and made signs to which he replied "You ornery turds wouldn't trade me for all the money in the world". He was absolutely right about that.  Remembrances may be shared online at www.stittsworthfuneralservices.com.

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