Edwin Rex Wilkinson

Edwin Rex Wilkinson of Ardmore died peacefully Thursday, Oct. 1, at Mercy Hospital in Ardmore with family members at his bedside hours after he suffered a hemorrhagic stroke at his home. He was 94.

Rex was born and raised in Buffalo, Okla. He was the first in his family to go to college, graduating from Oklahoma Baptist University in 1954. The previous year he married his childhood friend and love of his life, Carrie Joye Craighead, who also grew up in Buffalo and graduated OBU. They enjoyed more than 60 years of marriage, proudly raising five children. When Joye’s health declined, Rex cared lovingly for her until her death in 2013.

Rex was also preceded in death by a son, Michael Wilkinson. He is survived by four children, David Wilkinson (Melanie) of Winston-Salem, N.C., Karen Sims (Roger) of Ardmore, Kent Wilkinson (Cheryl) of Edmond, Okla., and Kevin Wilkinson (Beth) of Owasso, Okla., and by 17 grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren.

An ordained Baptist minister, Rex earned a Master of Religious Education from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He devoted his adult life to Christian ministry, serving four Oklahoma congregations over 41 years: South Persimmon Baptist Church near Sharon and Crown Heights Baptist Church in Woodward as pastor, followed by First Baptist, Ardmore, and First Baptist, Muskogee, as minister of education and administration. After retiring from the Muskogee church in 1987, he served another 10 years as an estate stewardship counselor for the Baptist Foundation of Oklahoma (now WatersEdge).

In retirement Rex continued to serve his church in various capacities, including administrative and pastoral support, teaching an older adult Bible class, and leading or participating in volunteer missions teams that undertook construction and rebuilding projects across Oklahoma and in several others states and Mexico. He also served as president of the Muskogee chapter of Habitat for Humanity and was a regular volunteer on Habitat house-building projects.

Throughout his ministry, Rex was known as a knowledgeable developer and leader of Sunday school for all ages. He and Joye, a devoted children’s Sunday school teacher, led numerous Sunday school leadership training events throughout Oklahoma and in Alaska, Hawaii, and Spain. Rex also led Sunday school and church growth conferences in six states and in Canada.

Rex was an avid runner for more than five decades. Even as his body began to wear out in later years, he maintained a disciplined commitment to walking and physical therapy exercises.

He was a skilled carpenter and woodworker who loved sharing the product of his labors across four decades of craftsmanship in the large workshop he built behind the house in Muskogee. He will be loved and remembered by churches and friends who were beneficiaries of his generosity. He will be cherished by three generations of family who were recipients of cedar chests, small wooden boxes, clocks, bookcases, curio cabinets, porch swings, and other treasures, and who sometimes joined him in the workshop.

Rex was deeply loved by his family of four generations and by the congregations and communities he served. As a trusted and respected colleague, minister, teacher, advisor, and friend, he was valued for his practical wisdom, spiritual maturity, and moral integrity. His faith was genuine and winsome. He was humble, dependable, honest, and kind.

Rex read and studied the scriptures daily. The day before his death, he hosted a small group of men for their regular Wednesday morning Bible study around his kitchen table.

Rex’s life, love, and faith will be remembered and celebrated at a memorial service held at First Baptist, Ardmore, at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 28. Interment of ashes will take place at a later date in Muskogee. In lieu of flowers, the family has requested that memorial donations be made to the Rex and Joye Wilkinson Scholarship Fund at OBU.