More detail on this person: Services for Harvey
Curtis McCoy will be 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 3,
2007 at First Baptist Church, Inola. Dr. Mike
Butler will share words of comfort. Burial will
follow at Highland Cemetery, Inola with full
military honors provided. Friends may visit at
Rice Funeral Service from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday
with the family receiving friends from 6-8.
Harvey passed away Thursday, March 29, 2007.
He was 76.
Born in Inola on March 5, 1931 to Lester and Edna
(Olmstead) McCoy, Harvey was reared and
educated in his birth community and lovingly cared
for by his grandparents, Albert and Augie McCoy.
After graduation from Inola High School, Harvey
began a degree in petroleum engineering at
Oklahoma State where he became involved in the
ROTC program. This led him to flight school and
an interruption in his academic career. He later
completed his degree, changing the emphasis to
electrical engineering and then began his first
tour of duty and a 20-year career in Army
Aviation.
In 1951 Harvey and Mona Louis Nelson, an Inola
girl, began dating and married on Aug. 30 1952 in
Bentonville, Ark. Their union was blessed with
three sons to whom Harvey was a dedicated and
committed father. His boys, in turn, looked up to
their dad as the tallest, smartest and most loving
person they knew. Because of Harvey's loving
devotion to his wife and children, they were able
to adjust easily to the 30 new locations they
called home over the years. Family was his first
priority in all situations. One might say the
world was their backyard - and in July of 2001,
Harvey and Louise returned to their childhood home
and settled in Claremore.
More than an adventure, Harvey's was a life that
extended from an honorable man's love of Country.
It took him personally to two tours in Vietnam,
two tours in Korea and one in Germany. His
selfless steps and honorable gift of patriotism
continue with a heritage of service. His sons
followed in those footsteps: Colonel Curtis McCoy,
a West Point graduate serving in the Pentagon with
a possible promotion to the rank of general in the
U.S. Army; Colonel Terry McCoy a retired marine
with a specialty in the S. American drug war; and
Colonel Randy McCoy, who served in Desert Storm
as a pilot and is now involved I the Air Force
Research Laboratory as a test pilot; a grandson
Army pilot like his grandfather; and a niece, Rev.
Patti Sheeley, who served as an Air Force Chaplain
leaving only the Navy unrepresented in the McCoy
legacy, however Louise knows there is still that
possibility.
Though a highly decorated military retiree, Harvey
also possessed a light-hearted, personable side
that drew many to him. Loving and caring, he will
best be remembered as a devoted husband, father
and grandfather - a man among men, able to lead in
both his career and his home with an exceptional
depth of character. He is survived by his wife,
Louise, of their home in Claremore; his sons,
Curtis L. McCoy and his wife Ileane of the
Washington, D.C. area, Terry Lee McCoy and his
wife Lynn, also of the Washington, D.C. area, and
Randy Joe McCoy and His wife, Vicki, of
Columbus, Ohio; his grandchildren, Sarah and Dr.
Brian Waterman of Norfolk, Va., Jason McCoy,
West Point graduate with an appointment to flight
school, serving at Ft. Rucker, Ala., college
students, Andrew McCoy of Norfolk, Va., Samantha
McCoy of Springfield, Ohio, Terry Alan McCoy of
Athens, Ohio, Bradley McCoy of Minneapolis, Minn.
and Brandon McCoy, serving at Rickenbacker AFB
in Columbus, Ohio. He was preceded in death by
his parents and grandparents.
From the Claremore Progress sent in by his wife.
This information was last updated 05/18/2016
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