Bobby Burton Turner
Bobby Burton Turner, beloved father, grandfather, great grandfather and brother passed away on December 8, 2025 at age 98. A memorial service will be held at Fitzgerald Ivy Chapel on December 19, 2025 at 12:30pm. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Jon Nelson Scholarship: https://tulsacf.org/jonpnelsonscholarshipfund/ Bob was born on September 28, 1927, in Seminole, Oklahoma, the son of Bert Elisha Turner and Johnnie Roberta Beavers Turner.
Bob was a survivor of the New London School Explosion in 1937. He retold a lifelong memory of watching desks slide down a vertical floor as it turned over in the explosion. In his telling, he was late returning from recess and should have already been inside.
Bob attended high schools in Shawnee and Holdenville, OK.
In October 1945, less than a month after turning eighteen, Bob entered active service in the U.S. Navy where he served past the end of World War II, and then briefly in the Naval Reserves. To start active duty so soon after his birthday, he had to secretly enlist whileBob earned the World War II Victory Medal, the he was still 17. Until the end of her life, his mother retold the story of her shock at his surprise departure for the Navy. Bob’s naval pay helped support his mother and little sister in those years. By 1951, Bob was recalled to service during the Korean conflict, making him a two-war veteran.
American Theater Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Medal, and the Korean Service Medal. He suffered severe hearing damage during his shipboard service off the coast of Korea that would heavily affect his quality of life in later years.
After the Navy, Bob earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Oklahoma A&M College.
At Oklahoma A&M, he met and married Mary Ann Moore in June, 1953. They remained a couple until parted by Mary Ann’s death in 2011. Upon graduation, Bob and Mary Ann moved to Tulsa, where they raised five children.
Bob initially worked as an engineer for Public Service of Oklahoma, but soon accepted employment at American Airlines, where he stayed for 29 years to retire as a senior project engineer. In addition to American’s in-house commercial airline engineering, he contributed to development of Boeing’s 747, the British-French Concord SST Supersonic Transport, and NASA’s Space Shuttle.
In 1971 Bob moved the family to Southern California to work as a part of American Airlines’ subcontract team providing design services for NASA’s Space Shuttle.
Returning to Tulsa in 1974, Bob and Mary Ann acquired and operated rental properties when he decided that investing in real estate paid better than aircraft engineering. Managing their rental property turned into a second career for Bob, and a two-decade shared husband-wife business venture for them both.
In 1996, Bob and Mary Ann moved into their final home, a house on acreage with room for extended family and guests, many domestic and wild creatures, and a 9,000-square-foot workshop.
Bob became active in the antique car community, acquiring several antique autos. Bob was a long-time member of the Horseless Carriage Club of America, the Model T Ford Club of America, and the Early Ford V-8 Club of America. For many years the extended family drove Bob’s 100-plus year-old cars on lengthy annual driving club tours around various regional destinations.
Bob and Mary Ann played Bridge as a couple with Mary Ann’s Bridge Club continuously through their years together. He played ukulele, and sometimes performed with the Over Fifty group at Christ the King Catholic Church. He kept a lifelong affinity for dominoes and chess, always seeking someone to play with him. Bob was a lifelong learner who loved history, engineering, science, and technology. He was an avid reader with teetering piles of dog-eared reading materials to the very end, asking for his newest issue of Scientific American in the hospital.
Bob is survived by his sister, Nancy Miller of Bethany; sons Jeffrey Turner and wife Patricia of Norman, and Jim Turner; daughter Julia Ann Nelson and husband, Curtis Brown of Tulsa; sister-inlaw Cathie Moore of Jackson, MS; grandchildren Ryan Collins and wife Brooke Baldeschwiler-Collins of Brooklyn, NY; Deidra Ann Duncan and husband Olen of Fort Meyers, FL; Alexis Bejarano and husband Alan, Chloe Turner, Jack Turner, and Jennifer Brown all of Tulsa; Kari Gary and husband Peter Bagwell of Washington; and great-grandchildren Kimberly Anne, Kaleb, and Kylie Nelson, Gemma and Ethan Duncan, Sabrina Bejarano, and Kayson, Kamden, Kilian and Kane Brady, his wife Laney and their daughter, Papa’s only great-great-grandchild Brylie Ann. He was also survived by his many nieces, nephews, and their family members. He was preceded in death by wife Mary Ann; parents Bert Turner and Johnnie Lawyer, two half-brothers Larry Turner and Winfred Turner; brothers-inlaw Harold Miller, Pat Moore and wife Joan, and Thomas Moore; two sons John Christopher Turner and Joseph David Turner; two daughters-in-law Pamela Turner and Cherrie Turner, and three grandchildren Stephanie Ann Nelson, Thomas Nelson, and Jon Nelson.
We are grateful for every one of the ninety-eight years we were given with him.
Fitzgerald Ivy Chapel, 918-585-1151 www.fitzgeraldfuneralservice. com
