Samuel Ayers Karney's Obituary
Samuel A. Karney was born on October 5th, 1925. He married Mary Lou Karney on February 5th, 1949 in Muskogee. They were married for 62 years and raised 4 children; Kip, Casey, Cindy and Amy; 7 grandchildren and 2 greatgrandchildren. Sam was called to action for WWII to serve our country. He then attended art school in Sarasota, Fl. Sam started his career in the Tulsa area at Claude Neon Federal, a local sign company in the mid 1950's. He worked there for 20+ years as both an artist and salesperson. He and 2 other gentlemen purchased the business in the mid 1970's. He was partly responsible for designing some of the most popular signs in the Tulsa market, including Drysdales, Mazzio's, Ken's Pizza and even the original concept for QuikTrip. He talked Chester Cadieux out of using 'QuickTrip' and turned it into QuikTrip so the same number of letters would be on both sides. He sold the first QuikTrip sign. He was a member of the Tulsa Bass Club as well as serving as president of the association for 1 year. One of Sam's greatest joys was fishing on the weekends. He has fished most of the mid states as well as Canada and Mexico, until he was around 50 and he dropped the poles and picked up golf clubs. He enjoyed golfing as much as he did fishing. He continued to play twice a week until he reached the age of 84. He appeared on Joe Krieger's fishing show several times. He was involved in the Tulsa Executive Association and served as president for them. He was involved with the Oklahoma Sign Association and served as a president as well. Sam was always looking for new ways of expressing himself and sharing with others. His cartoons were published in local magazines and he made bronze sculptures by hand for years. If you looked up role model in the dictionary you would find a picture of our mother and father. Funeral services 2 PM, Tuesday, September 25, at Bethany Free Will Baptist Church, 75th & 129th in Broken Arrow, OK.
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