Kenneth C. Ross

Kenneth Clark Ross (AKA: Ken, Kenny, Kenny Clark, Baby, Dad, Pop Pop, Grandpa) was born Wednesday, November 1, 1950 in Oklahoma City and died NASCAR fast on Thursday, March 21, 2019. He is survived by his wife Karen; his cherished Brenda; daughter Kyla along with her two children, Brandon & Scott; son Kenny and his wife Andrea along with their four children Aliya, Ashton, Paxton, and Nealy; stronger than a brother K13; as well as many lifelong friends and neighbors.

He was a simple but complicated man and those who knew and loved him, appreciated his warped sense of humor. He said many times that he wanted his tombstone to read: “I told you I was sick”.

His son Kenny (“Thud” to some) said the words that come to his mind when he thinks of his dad are: family, honesty, humor, kindness, love and loyalty. That “the man held to his principles, soared above his beginnings, and had a great time much like his favorite warbird (the Spitfire); of which was said: “Those who did not know her may wonder how mortal man can cherish an undying affection for her gasoline reeking, camouflaged memory. And no one can tell them.”

Kyla Kaye (“Spoo”), his daughter, also shared his love of poetry and especially music. Though gone, he lives on in memory and I will find him again every time I hear a plane or smell hard-working sweat or see old poetry books or feel water splash my face as if at the lake.  For this reason, “I cannot say, and will not say that he is dead – He is just away!” (James Whitcomb Riley).  He is more legendary than “John Henry’s Hammer” because he was even bigger and badder than “Big Bad John”.  He was the “Stranger With The Melodies” that sang “It’s My Job” “To A Sleeping Beauty” that his “Little Miss Magic” was “A Hula Girl At Heart” and he was her “Tangled Up Puppet”.  “Oh Captain! My Captain!”  “Oh Me! Oh Life!”  The “Leader Of The Band” is gone and I grieve the “Death Of An Unpopular Poet” who encouraged dreaming “The Impossible Dream” and believe in yourself like “The Bug That Tried to Crawl Around the World”.  “You Are The Only Song” and “I Miss You So Badly”, but now that your day is done, it goes without saying that “a good time was had by all”!

He always valued older people. Upon their passing, it saddened him that the things they valued were distributed among those remaining and then they were gone forever. “Old Men” by Ogden Nash was one of his cherished poems, which reads:

People expect old men to die,
They do not really mourn old men.
Old men are different. People look
At them with eyes that wonder when.
People watch with unshocked eyes;
But the old men know when an old man dies.

He is now at eternal rest, but looking upon his beloved face, we saw a trace of his amused lop-sided grin and half expected him to suddenly sit up and say: “Did you learn anything from that?”