Loyd Hammond
He loved and participated in all sports, especially basketball and baseball; he found schoolwork relatively easy and was chosen as Boys’ State Representative his junior year.
Country and western music played a huge role in Loyd’s formative years. He started dancing to it early, and never lost his love of traditional country classics.
Loyd began early putting food on the table with his rifle and shotgun. Therefore he became a master marksman and hunter.
After graduation, Loyd attended and graduated from SWOSU in Weatherford. He began his teaching career in Cordell, OK, and during the next few years he completed his Master’s Degree and took many hours towards his doctorate. For 35 years he taught high school English and Industrial Arts in Cordell, Reydon, Sweetwater, and Allison, Texas, where he also served as high school principal. His ability to prepare students for college English was exacting, resulting in gratitude, love, praise and respect from countless students.
Never shying from hard work, he supplemented his teaching salary as bus driver and janitor in most schools. On weekends and in summers he built houses, hung sheetrock, built cabinets, raised cattle, and even catered for a number of years.
In 1963 Loyd married Sandra Keahey, a union which produced two children, Mike Hammond, of Stillwater, OK, and Kelly, who lives in Edmond with her husband John Brewer, and their two daughters, Alee and Ashlee.
Later in 1994, Loyd and Dora Ford married, bringing a step-son, Scott Ford, his wife, Carolyn, and two children, Kristia and Aaron to him. A step-daughter, Malinda Freeman and her daughter, Amy live in Clinton, OK, as does step-daughter, Kathy Ford.
Following Dora’s death, Loyd met and married Sharon Merydith in 2007. In this marriage he gained a step-son Mike Farris, his wife Tracy and their children, Shea and Mark, from Denver, Co. Another step-son, Matt Farris, lives in Amarillo, TX with his three children, Baylee, Hayden and Jack.
The blending of these three families is a beautiful gift.
Loyd was preceded in death by his parents and his older brother, Ervin. He is survived by his wife Sharon, his children and grandchildren, his nephew Robert and niece, Susan and their families, his extended families and a host of friends, neighbors and ex-students.
Services will be on Saturday, September 10, 2016 at 10:00 in the Cheyenne Methodist Church. Burial will be in the White Rose Cemetery, Reydon, Oklahoma.