Clarence Rodgers Moore of Edmond, OK passed on April 30, 2020, at the age of 88, at home. He was born on Labor Day, Monday, September 7, 1931, in Pearsall TX, the only child of the late Clarence Monroe Moore, a WWI veteran, and Elsie Mae (Rodgers) Moore. He grew up in a household with his grandmother Laura (Gibson) Rodgers and blind uncle Clarence Bazzel Rodgers. His father was a clerk for Seaman’s Store and his mother ran the Western Telephone Office and switchboard from their home in Mansfield, AR.
As a child, Rodgers was enamored with flying, and music. He held a newspaper route and worked as a projectionist at the Dixie Theater in Mansfield, saving for flying lessons, which he began at the age of 15, on a crop duster. His childhood textbooks include his drawings of airplanes penciled in buzzing around Abraham Lincoln’s head. He attended Hartford and Mansfield, AR schools, graduating from Mansfield High School in 1949. Following graduation, Rodgers enlisted in the Army National Guard at Fort Hood, Texas, and served as a Corporal in the Korean War Conflict Theater through1952. After returning from Korea, he married his sweetheart the late Mary Luan (Hearn) Moore of Greenwood AR in 1953. She preceded him in death in 2018 after 65 years of marriage.
Rodgers and Luan lived in Tulsa OK, where he took flying lessons and was an instructor for Ross Aviation and American Airlines. In 1958, they relocated with two daughters to Nashville, TN, where he was a flight instructor for American Airlines. In Jan 1960, Rodgers’ lifelong dream came true when he became a copilot for Southern Airways, and the family moved to Memphis, TN where It grew with the birth of a son, and they remained until 1991. Rodgers served as a Captain with Southern Airways, Republic Airlines, and Northwest Airlines until 1991. He was a career member and recruiter for the ALPA, during a time when hijackings were rampant and pilot and flight safety were greatly lacking, and worked, and went on strike for, advances in those areas. He was a member and contributor to Parkway Village Baptist Church, Southern Avenue Baptist Church, and Ridgeway Baptist Church.
Upon Rodgers’ retirement, they moved near their family homes to Fort Smith AR, where he became engrossed in genealogy and history. He was the past president and secretary of the South Sebastian County Historical Society. He was instrumental in the restoration of the Greenwood Old Jail Museum, the Coal Miner’s Memorial, and the donation and relocation to Greenwood AR of the Vineyard Cabin built by Charles Blaylock, 1848. Rodgers was honored with an appointment to the Arkansas Museum Services Panel in 1998 by then Governor Mike Huckabee. He and his wife enjoyed traveling, especially to Alaska.
Rodgers is remembered for his quick smile, slow storytelling, beautiful tenor voice, fishing, camping, trail riding, photography, and his perfectionism (which he also expected from others). He loved building scale remote control airplanes, HO train sets, and woodworking. In 2012, the Moores relocated to Edmond OK near their eldest daughter, where they continued their interest in family history and their grandchildren, which were scattered all over the world.
Rodgers is survived by his daughters Rebecca Ann Moore of Edmond OK, Mary Kathryn (Andrew) Platt of Oldwick, NJ, and a son, Clarence Rodgers (Gina) Moore Jr. of Clearwater, FL, 9 grandchildren, and 9 great-grandchildren, and two great-grandsons expected the fall 2020.
A memorial service is planned in his honor on Labor Day Weekend, Saturday, September 4, 2021, at Coop Prairie Cemetery, Mansfield AR near his wife, parents, grandmother, and uncle under the direction of Martin Funeral Home in Mansfield.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in his honor to one of the following organizations:
City Rescue Mission 800 W. California Ave, Oklahoma City OK 73106 http://www.cityrescue.org
Oklahoma Humane Society of Oklahoma City PO Box 18471, Oklahoma City OK 73154 http://www.okhumane.org
South Sebastian County Historical Society PO Box 523 Greenwood AR 72936 http://www.greenwoodmuseumonline.com Online condolences may be sent at http://www.martinfuneralhomes.com
