Martens, Harry Allen (1924-2004)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 2004 Feb 16 p. 11

Birth date: 1924 Dec 2

text of obituary:

HARRY ALLEN MARTENS

Harry Allen Martens, 79, of Fairview, Okla., died Jan. 24, 2004, at Fairview Fellowship Home. He was born Dec. 2, 1924, to Daniel A. and Anna Just Martens in a sod house between Balko and Boyd.

He and his family moved to the Fairview area when he was 11. He graduated from Fairview High School in 1942. He attended Mennonite Brethren Bible School for one year. He was in Civilian Public Service from fall 1943 to May 1946.

He married Viola May Kliewer on Aug. 24, 1948, in the South Mennonite Brethren Church south of Fairview, after a two-year courtship.

He grew up on a farm and as an adult became a farmer and rancher. He and Viola owned and operated a dairy for a while before he got into the manufacturing business, starting Fairview Manufacturing Service. He later helped co-found Mabar, a steel fabrication and manufacturing business mostly of agricultural products.

He became a historian and was a charter member of Major County Historical Society. He was a member of the Mennonite Brethren church, where he taught Sunday school, was on the deacon board and on several church conference boards. He was also on the Major County Excise Board. He was a charter member of the Oklahoma John Deere Two-Cylinder Club and was its president the first three years of its existence.

One of his hobbies was creating in his workshop. He loved to restore old wagons and make small things that he would give to his grandchildren.

Survivors include his wife, Viola; two sons, Mike and his wife, Ann, of Fairview, and Max of Los Angeles; two daughters, Arlene Gale and her husband, Brent, of Long Beach, Calif., and Dawnette Bell and her husband, Steve, of Fairview; three sisters, his twin sister Mary Helen Hein of Fresno, Calif., Inez Kliewer of Fairview and Alice Wiebe of Enid; and six grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by a brother, Henderson.

Services were held at Fairview Mennonite Brethren Church. Burial was in North Mennonite Brethren Cemetery of Fairview.