Funeral services for Teddy Gene Fite are scheduled for Saturday at 10:00 am in the Maranatha Freewill Baptist Church with Russell Albright officiating, assisted by Rev. LeRoy Hollman and Pastor Dennis Heath. Interment will follow in Hillcrest Cemetery. The family will hold a visitation at the Craddock Funeral Home Friday evening from 6-7.

Teddy Gene Fite of Ardmore, Oklahoma, whom we all adored left us to go be with our Heavenly Father on December 7, 2022.  He was born on February 1, 1930 in Willow, Oklahoma during a snow storm.  They moved to Fort Sumner, New Mexico in 1935, where his dad worked on building Butte Dam during the depression.

Bob Scarborough became his stepfather when he was about 9 years old and his Mom and Bob worked on a farm and ranch at Pleasant Hill, New Mexico.   Teddy was saved and baptized during this time.  In school he was known as "nice Teddy."  He helped on the farm and ranch, and drove a tractor until he was about 12, when Bob took a job as a Santa Fe Railroad brakeman in Clovis, New Mexico.  Ted took a part time job as a sales clerk at Rhodes Men's Store while attending school in Clovis.

Ted went to live with his birth dad in Portland, Oregon when he was 15 years old.  There he and his stepbrother joined the US Marines when he was 17 and attained the rank of Sargent.  Ted served in China helping evacuate people and military equipment when they were driven out of China by the Communists.  He was on the last ship evacuated. He was then assigned to the 5 ^th Marine Division in the Korean War and was Forward Observer where he was severely wounded by mortar shrapnel at Bloody Ridge in September 1950 and was awarded a purple heart.  He was sent to the hospital in Japan and to Clovis, New Mexico for a rest furlough in December 1950.  There he met and married the love of his life Estelle McCrary in January 1951.

He attended Eastern New Mexico University where he excelled at mathematics and before graduation, was offered a position with North American Aviation at Norwood, California, where he, his wife and three daughters moved.  He sold Kirby vacuum cleaners part time while his wife made the appointments and worked to supplement his income.  He preferred sales to work at North American Aviation and accepted successive positions with Kirby distributorships in Garden City, Kansas, Houston, Texas and Paris, Texas, each time with a promotion.  In 1963 he acquired ownership of a startup regional distributorship located in Ardmore, Oklahoma, which he built to be a top-performing Kirby distributorship, was in business for 45 years and was known as "Mr. Kirby."   He has resided in Ardmore for almost 60 years.

Ted and Estelle would celebrate 72 years of marriage this coming January.  Ted is survived by his wife Estelle McCrary Fite, daughter Carol Fite Albright and husband Russell, grandson Kendall Kirkham and wife Raquel, great grandson Jordan Kirkham, grandson Hayden Albright and wife Bebe; daughter Susan Estes, grandson Gant Estes and wife Heather, great granddaughters Avery and Hadley Estes, great grandson Will Estes, granddaughter Amy Estes, great grandson Devin McMahan; daughter Teddie Holder and husband Randy, granddaughter Sarah Welker and husband Lee, great grandsons Cal and Rex Welker, and great granddaughter Halie Welker, grandson Peyton Holder and wife Lauren, great granddaughter Elle Holder and great grandson Theo Holder, granddaughter Madison Anderson and husband Brett, great granddaughters Arabella, Kennedy and Reagan Anderson, great grandson Pierce Anderson; and son Robert Fite and wife Carrie, granddaughter Megan McQueen and husband Mitch, great grandson Ford McQueen, granddaughter Hannah May and husband Taylor; sisters-in-law Ruthie Paukner and Carol McCrary; brother-in-law Orvin Mouw and numerous beloved nieces and nephews.

Ted is predeceased by his daughter Stephanie Fite and grandson Graham Albright.

Serving as Pallbearers will be Gant Estes, Peyton Holder, Kendall Kirkham, Hayden Albright, Devin McMahan, and Curtis Greene.