THE FAMILY OF DON AND LUCILE SHAKLEE

I wrote this up the Alfalfa County History book a few years ago.

THE FAMILY OF DON AND LUCILE SHAKLEE
Don Ivan Shaklee, August 11, 1915----April 13, 1981
Gwendolyn Lucile Richardson Shaklee, April 11, 1916—January 24, 1995
Married......January 2, 1937

The Don Shaklee family began with his parents moving from the Jefferson area to a farm
four miles south and one and a quarter miles west of Jet in 1928. Don was about a Freshman in
Jet Highschool when his parents, Fred and Edith Shaklee, moved into the Jet Community. There
he met Gwendolyn Lucile Richardson, the daughter of Austin Ward and Anna Mae Richardson.
They began by establishing a home east of the State school in Enid and Don worked for
an Uncle Oscar Maxey, a brother-in-law of his father. But after two years a farm was available
about two miles from his parents for rent so Don and Lucile moved with their new born baby
girl, Connie Joan born in August 1938, to establish a home one mile south of the Timberlake
church on the correction line about 1940. The land belonged to Henry C. Kliewer. They
remained at this location until 1952 and then moved into a much larger and modern home with
indoor plumbing and running water that belonged to Don’s brother and sister-in-law, Harold and
Cathrine Shaklee. It was known as the Keiffer home!
To this union of marriage two more children were born, Jerry Ray Shaklee in July 1940
and Lana Beth Shaklee Schiltz in February 1944.
Don was not only a farmer of wheat and raised cattle and hogs but he was known for his
carpenter work. He began doing construction and carpenter work by helping with the building of
the Great Salt Plains dam, the large grain elevator in Jet, the United Methodist Church in Jet in
1946-‘47 and then the east wing of the Jet Public School in 1956. Then he began carpenter work
with Jerald Wilson of Jet and then after Jerald’s death he worked with Bill Dunavant and his
brother Merwyn Shaklee. He helped build the first Dairy Boy on the south side of Cherokee, Pat
Kliewer’s brick home, Everett Hadwiger’s home in Cherokee, remodeled the Alfalfa County
Bank, Jet Community Building, and built other homes in the Jet, Goltry, Helena, and Nash area.
One of the last homes that he helped build was the home of his oldest daughter Connie, who is
married to Jerry LaGrow.
Farming was not easy for Don and Lucile as they had seven crops in a row that were
deemed as failures, five and seven bushels to the acre and had to divide it with a landlord. The
crop failures were contributed to green bugs, army worms, drought, rust, and the wind blew the
wheat out another year. The next year they had a bumper crop and Don bought the only new
tractor, a Case, he owned in his lifetime. But when Mr. Kliewer wanted to sell the land, they
decided to borrow money from an Uncle, a brother of Don’s father, and buy the quarter of land
that they were living on. It had a three room house, without running water, or indoor plumbing, a
windmill, a chicken house, a barn, and a wash house, and of course a cave that was used quite
frequently.
The second quarter of land that Don farmed belonged to Mr. Kliewer and is the land that
surrounds the Timberlake church area and the Timberlake cemetery. His son, Jerry Ray, still
farms the land that belongs to Mr. Kliewer’s granddaughter. Don also farmed land that belonged
to his brother Harold and sister-in-law, Cathrine, after Harold returned to make a career of the
Air Force.
When Don began suffering from asthma caused from breathing sawdust from all the
carpenter work he had done during the winter months, he and Lucile bought a fifth-wheel travel
trailer and began to make their home during the winter in Apache Junction, Arizona in a trailer
court called Cherokee Village. There he met his death when he was broad sided by a car in a
intersection while riding his motorcycle down a six lane highway. He left behind his three grown
children and their mates, and three granddaughters and three grandsons. The granddaughters are
Penny LaGrow Gregory, Tammy Sue Shaklee, Gwen Schiltz, and the grandsons, Jeffery LaGrow,
Eric Schiltz, and J.D. (James Don) Shaklee. Five of these grandchildren are graduates of
Oklahoma State University and J.D. from Central State University.
Don’s son Jerry Ray came back to farm at Don’s retirement and bought the Champlin Gas
Station in Jet from Shorty Page. His daughter, Connie Shaklee LaGrow and her husband farm
west of Jet and have lived in the same location most of their 47 years of marriage. Lana moved
back to the Jet area in 1983 and later became the music teacher in the Timberlake School system
until her retirement in 2004. All of Don’s grandchildren except for one, Gwen Schiltz,
graduated from Jet-Nash Highschool.