Published: November 18, 2008 11:27 am            

Billy Earl Sparks

Billy “Bill” Earl Sparks, 74, died Saturday, Nov. 15, 2008.

Graveside services will be 11 a.m. Wednesday at Maple Grove Cemetery in Seminole with Chris Stinnett officiating. Funeral arrangements are under the direction of Swearingen Funeral Home.

Born Jan. 16, 1934, in Konawa, he was the son of Art and Martha Sparks. He married Willetta Faye Allen, of Seminole, on June 9, 1955. They raised three children.

He began his working career for Montgomery Ward in Shawnee, and worked his way up the retail ladder to store manager before leaving to complete his college degree in industrial sciences at East Central University.

He began teaching at Varnum Public Schools while he obtained an associates degree in police science from St. Gregory in Shawnee.

Thereafter, he embarked on his life long career in law enforcement beginning in Seminole where he obtained the position of assistant chief of police. In 1973, he left the police department and went to work for the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.

While working for the O.S.B.I., he attended and graduated from the FBI Investigative School at Quantico, Va., obtained a polygraph operators license, and was trained at other premier law enforcement facilities around the United States bringing that experience back to assist local law enforcement agencies in Oklahoma.

From that time on, he never left southeastern Oklahoma. He began his career with the O.S.B.I. as a resident agent in Seminole, and in 1973 was the case agent in charge of the riot at McAlester Penitentiary.

While working for the O.S.B.I., he obtained the rank of the bureau’s first deputy inspector and later was promoted to inspector over the regional office at Antlers. During this time, he obtained his masters degree from Northeastern State University in Tahlequah. After a long and distinguished career with the O.S.B.I., he retired in 1990 due to health concerns. Since that time he and his wife lived in Fort Gibson.

Survivors include his children, William Earl Sparks, of Tulsa, Gaye Catcher, of Fort Gibson, and Robert Sparks, of Tahlequah; two daughters-in-law and five grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Art and Martha Sparks.

        

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