Roll Call Tribute

Becker-Rabon Funeral Home obituary
1502 Fort Sill Blvd.
Lawton, OK 73507
(580) 353-3030

LeGrande (Lee) Joseph Woods
March 28, 1922 - January 2, 2015

Graveside funeral service for LeGrande (Lee) Joseph Woods, 92, Lawton, will be 10:00 a.m. Saturday, January 10, 2015 in the Chapel of Peace Mausoleum at Sunset Memorial Gardens.
Mr. Woods went to Heaven on Friday, January 2, 2015.
Burial will be in Sunset Memorial Gardens under the direction of Becker-Rabon Funeral Home.
The family will greet friends from 5-7 pm Friday, January 9, 2015, at the funeral home.
He was born in Corsicana, Texas to LeGrande Woods and Julia Woods on March 28, 1922. Lee loved horses and cattle and as a young man, worked on ranches in West Texas before attending New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell, New Mexico for a year and then transferred to Texas A&M in Bryan College Station, Texas. Lee excelled at Texas A&M where he was Corps Adjutant of the Aggie Corps and an active horse polo player. He met the love of his life, Marilyn Lee Gilbert in Knoxville, Tennessee while visiting his sister Betty who was attending Ward Belmont College. They were married September 4, 1944 during one of his furloughs from fighting in Europe.

Lee graduated from Texas A&M in 1943, was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army at Ft. Riley, Kansas where he joined the Army Air Corps. He received overseas training as a crew member of B-17’s in Rapid City, South Dakota and then shipped to England where he was stationed with the 8th Air Force Command. He flew 16 missions, crash landed several times and was shot down over occupied Holland where the Holland underground helped his crew back their squadron in England. He was awarded the two stars for battle participation in the European theater, the Air Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster and a Presidential Citation Ribbon. Lee returned to Lawton after the war and joined the love of his life, Marilyn. Together they traveled and hauled their horses all over the Southwest for a period of time before settling down in Lawton. Lee was a partner in Gilbert-Woods Drug Stores and retired in 1979. He and Marilyn owned a working horse and cattle ranch, the Beaver Creek Ranch, West of Lawton where they raised Show Champion Hereford cattle and stakes winning thoroughbred horses. 

He was a member of the Oklahoma Thoroughbred Breeders Association, the Oklahoma Hereford Breeders Association, the Lawton Retail Merchants Association, the Lawton Optimist Club, the Lawton Chamber of Commerce and Industry, a board member of the Lawton Salvation Army, the Laura Fields Trust and the Great Plains Technical Center and the First Christian Church.

Lee was a West Texas cowboy at heart whose word was his bond. He was the consummate gentleman and passionate about anything he undertook and a great example of a loving and supportive father.
Lee is survived by son Bruce G. Woods and wife Haroldy, Dallas, Texas, son Mark C. Woods and wife Shirley, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, daughter Cris L. Woods, The Woodlands, Texas and granddaughter Heather Woods Davila and husband Erik Davila, Allen, Texas.