The Daily Ardmoreite
October 14, 1932
Body is found by son but few rods from shore
It was believed small metal boat he used capsized
and he was unable to reach shore
Well known to sportsman
Funeral services are to be conducted by Reverend Harry S. DeVore
Oscar Whitehurst, 45, in charge of boat renting and fishing supplies at the Ardmore City Lake was drowned in that reservoir sometime Thursday morning. His body, long dead, was discovered late in the afternoon by his son William, and companions, who had become anxious over Whitehurst’s long absence from his quarters at the dam. Whitehurst body, face downward, was found in water scarcely two feet deep and only a few rods from the shore.
It is believed that he was thrown in the chill water when his tiny metal boat capsized sometime after sunup Thursday. The boat being without floats immediately sank and has not been found. It is thought that the mishap transpired at some distance from the shore and that Whitehurst burdened with clothing and wearing a heavy hunting coat began to swim toward the shore. The cold water and the clothing so fatigued him it is believed that he collapsed Wednesday when safety was almost assured.
Known to Sportsman
Whitehurst left his home 508 H Street Northeast early Wednesday morning. This was his custom in order to be on hand at the lake to accommodate early arrivals. Shortly after sun up he was seen to board the tiny boat armed with his shotgun. The boat being without floats immediately sank and was not found. It was thought the mishap transpired some distance from the shore He was saying to board the tiny metal boat armed with his shotgun. He was engaged in warfare on pelicans and cranes enemies of the fish in the lake. And it is believed that he was starting out to resume killing of these pests. One shell was found in his pocket when the body was brought to shore at 5:00 p.m. Thursday afternoon.
Mrs Whitehurst left home being presented with an opportunity to make a brief trip to Antlers, thought to call her husband by phone later in the morning but was told he was not at his stand. This did not cause her worry as he was often on the lake when she called him. She left a message informing him of her plans and left. She did not know of her husband’s death until her return at 7:00 p.m. Thursday night
It was Whitehurst practice to come by the school at noon to convey his children home for lunch. When he felled to appear it was presumed that business kept him at the lake and no particular alarm was failed.
Son Starts Search
Light in the afternoon William Whitehurst who aided his father all summer in the work at the lake became alarmed at the prolonged absence of his father. He started a search and was the one to find the body half submerged in the water.
City policeman and fireman hastened to the scene but could only bring the victim in and place him in an ambulance.
Funeral services will be held at the First Methodist Church at 2:30 o’clock Saturday afternoon by the pastor Dr Harry S. DeVore with burial in Rose Hill cemetery under direction of the Bettis Funeral Home.
Pallbear’s Named
Serving as pallbearers will be Duncan Taliaferro, Charles F. Adams, Lament Byers, Oscar Ritter, George P. Selvidge and B. W. Duke.
Born in Texas
Whitehurst was born near DeKalb Texas in Bowie county December 12, 1887. He came to Ardmore in 1895 and had lived here continuously since that time. Besides his wife and five children Joe, William, Mary Martha, Alfred and Tom. He is survived by his parents Mr and Mrs W. F. Whitehurst of this city.
Oscar William Whitehurst Dec 12, 1882 to Oct 13, 1932
Note: A Rod is 16.5 feet
Below is circa 1900 of the Neustadt home on Sunset Blvd in Ardmore. I ran the black and white photo through AI and colorized it.
Only 4 district judges for the 20th judicial district were successive war Veterans.
HAM Radio Talk By Butch Bridges KC5JVT
Echolink # 101960 – Allstar node # 58735 – HamsOverIP # 10301
SWR — What It Actually Means in Plain English
Every ham talks about SWR. Most meters show it. But what is it really?
The Simple Version
SWR stands for Standing Wave Ratio. It’s simply a measure of how well your radio and antenna are talking to each other.
Think of it like a garden hose. If the hose diameter suddenly changes in the middle, water pressure backs up at the transition point. RF energy does exactly the same thing when impedance mismatches — some power goes forward, some bounces back.
The Numbers
∙ SWR 1:1 — Perfect match. All power goes to the antenna. Never actually happens in the real world.
∙ SWR 1.5:1 — Excellent. Virtually no reflected power.
∙ SWR 2:1 — Good. Only about 11% of power reflected. Most rigs are happy here.
∙ SWR 3:1 — Acceptable with a tuner. Getting wasteful.
∙ SWR 6:1+ — Your radio is working against itself. Fix it.
What Reflected Power Actually Does
∙ Heats up your coax instead of radiating
∙ Stresses your finals
∙ Reduces effective radiated power
The Bottom Line
SWR is just a mismatch indicator — nothing more. A low SWR means your system is working as a team. A high SWR means something needs attention.
Chase the lowest SWR, work the most DX.
The Boredom Breaker Net out of Claremore, Oklahoma has been hitting some record number check-ins by HAMmers. Several times this week there have been around 80 HAMs checking in during the Noon to 2pm time (Central Time).
From This Weeks Mailbag
Sheriff’s office without the apostrophe would mean that it is the
office of multiple sheriffs….. -Steve Miller (like the band)
Q: “Butch: I was just wondering if you would know if Hamp Baker had ever been in the Army or on the Burma Road.” -Larry Paul
A: “My Dad was not in the service.” -Cindy Baker Morris
Many years ago, back in the 50s I remember all the signs Hamp Baker had installed along U.S. Highway 70 in Carter County between Ringling and Ardmore. He had many unique slogans, each containing a humorous rhyming poem that promoted highway safety. The signs were designed to entertain motorists and were a significant part of highway advertising until their discontinuation in the 1960s. They were all painted on old car hoods like the one you pictured in your Newsletter. I remember hearing my dad (who was a WWII veteran) making the commit that Hamp may have been at one point during WWII, he may have been on the old Burma Road and that’s where he got the Idea.
Burma-Shave
The signs on the Burma Road were part of a unique advertising campaign for Burma-Shave, a brushless shaving cream. These signs were typically six small red-and-white signs spaced about 100 feet apart along the highway, each containing a humorous rhyming poem that promoted the product.
They featured messages that included product promotions and public service announcements, such as reminders to drive safely. -Larry Paul
RE: HAM radio field day in Ardmore Oklahoma video. I’m still looking for a place/someone to clear up the video.
Dear Butch, THAT is AWESOME 😀! Talk about a “blast from the past”…They don’t make ’em like that anymore. I also knew “Jess Hayes” who was mentioned in the clip. I WISH that whoever put the video clip onto YouTube would have made it to where it could be saved. I sure would like to be able to save it to my collection. Thanks for the link so I could see it… -Gregg N5LYS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4Vwq8ong9I
Tech Talk
I’ve been checking out a new backup program for my computer(s). It seems a little technical even though the website says “easy to install.” The space needed on my external hard drive for my entire computer is over 330 Gigs (nearly 30,000 pictures). With that many irreplaceable photos I would be sick if I lost them from a computer crash. Hope everyone has a backup of your computer AND phone. It will crash someday.
I remember around the year 2000 a friend who worked at Stewart Title Company on West Broadway called me saying their computer crashed. She said she had a backup on diskettes she did everyday at 5:00pm but couldn’t seem to read those diskettes. I went and look. There was NOTHING on those 10 diskettes. They had lost everything, all title info, etc. They had to type everything back in by hand. So make sure any backups work and you can retrieve files and data in an emergency such as a hard drive crash. I tell people as a test go and delete an unimportant file or picture on your computer. Then using your backup program go and try to restore that one file back to your computer. If you can’t, then your backups are pretty much worthless. For decades I’m been a stickler for backups.
If you have a favorite free backup program you like, let me know. Below is a link to the free Urbackup program I am testing out to see how it works.
UPDATE: After trying the program for several days, if you have 330 gigs of data & pictures, etc., like I do to backup, UrBackup takes a long time to index the first time. But once its indexed works fine, and be sure to just tick Incremental Backups and not Full Backup after the first indexing.
Now, with all the above being said, I think the installation and setup (Server & Client) is a little on the technical side for the average computer user.
“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are” -Theodore Roosevelt
See everyone next week!
Butch and Jill Bridges
Ardmore Oklahoma
580-490-6823
https://oklahomahistory.net