Kenneth Harlan Dagley Jr.'s Obituary
Kenneth “Ken” Harlan Dagley Jr. was born on March 29, 1946, in Evansville, Indiana. He was the oldest and only son of Virginia Lucille (Utley) Dagley and Kenneth Harlan Dagley Sr. Kenneth spent the first 17 years of his life in Evansville, Indiana, with his immediate family. His little sister, Jane, always seemed to be wanting to be a part of whatever he was doing despite his attempts of picking on her to get her to go somewhere else to play. During that time in his life, Kenneth’s immediate family lived close to both sets of his grandparents, the Dagley’s and the Utley’s. Therefore, the grandparents were very involved in Kenneth and Jane’s lives during that time.
Kenneth was in choir from grade school all the way through high school. He had a beautiful soprano voice, and then after his voice changed he had a tenor voice. In fact, Kenneth’s choir director loved working with Kenneth so much, and was so impressed by his voice that he followed Kenneth transferring from teaching elementary choir to high school choir.
Kenneth’s dad, Kenneth Sr., lost his job at Crane Plumbing Company, due to a recession happening in the county at the time, so Kenneth Sr. had to find small jobs and was able find a job at Sears. Sears terminated Kenneth Sr. position on Christmas Eve, so the Dagley’s, tried to help Kenneth Sr. find a job in Texas or in Oklahoma. An offer came from Phillips 66 in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, so the family moved to Bartlesville in summer of 1963, which put Kenneth Jr and Jane closer to their Dagley cousins.
Kenneth was a Senior in high school when the family moved, but he opted to repeat his senior year due to the graduation requirement of Oklahoma History. During his second year as a Senior, Ken had one of the lead roles in the musical play, “South Pacific,” because he had a wonderful singing voice, in addition to being very handsome. In Kenneth’s 20’s and 30’s he continued singing and was in a Quartet.
After high school, Kenneth attended Northeastern State University (NSU) in Tahlequah, Oklahoma for one year before being drafted to serve his country in the Vietnam War. He chose to serve in the Army’s Navy and he was trained as a refrigeration specialist at Ft. Belvoir Virginia and started his service on July 20, 1966. After serving his initial term, he decided to continue his service in Vietnam in order to complete obligations sooner. He was honorably discharged on July 13, 1972.
Upon completion of his service to his country in the armed forces, Kenneth settled in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he was hired at Cities Service Oil Company. He started out at Cities Service in the mail room and literally worked his way up in the company to working in accounting. Where he shined in his abilities to work on computers, in addition to creating spreadsheets that would make his accounting coworkers jobs more efficient and easier. Cities Service would eventually shut down in Oklahoma, but Kenneth and an accountant would be the last to leave before the company completely shut it’s doors.
When his sister moved back to Oklahoma, after living in Alabama, he allowed her, along with his brother-in-law, and nieces to move in with him in his Tulsa house. It became a little too crowded for him, so he moved out and into an apartment until they were able to get their house build in Sand Springs, Oklahoma. After his sister and her family moved into their new house, he then moved back into his house.
Kenneth worked some odd and end jobs for a while, but eventually landed a job at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Tulsa as the Hotel Concierge. During his time at the Hard Rock, he also assisted in completing a historical book of the Cherokees. Kenneth retired from the Hard Rock at the age of 65.
After retirement, Kenneth had big remodeling plans for his Tulsa house, which came to an end after suffering from a stroke. He then went to live with his sister until his passing.
Kenneth is survived by his aunt, Mildred Bruner; his sister, Jane Western; his niece, Jennifer Western-Burrough and her husband, David; niece, Stephanie Western-Brock and her husband, Rusty; great-nephew, Tyler Meziere, and numerous cousins through the Utley and Dagley families.
Celebration of Life Service will be 12:30 pm, Saturday, June 25, 2022 at Floral Haven Funeral Home Chapel.
To view the service via webcasting please use the link below:
http://webcast.funeralvue.com/events/viewer/75204/hash:96A3214D953CB99E
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