Chad Hendrix

The extraordinary life of Chad Hendrix began June 24, 1968, when he was born to James and Wanita Hendrix in Midwest City, Okla. Before long, he was roaming city streets and wooded areas, finding adventure with a band of friends like only Gen Xers could do.

It's an understatement to say that Chad did many things throughout his life. In high school at Choctaw and Carl Albert, he was a star athlete, gaining accolades on the soccer, track and football fields. In 1987, his parents relocated to Burns Flat, Okla., where they had grown up, and amid the culture shock of that move, his next-door neighbor set him up on a date with Holly Clanahan. He was 19, and she was 16, and they fell deeply in love. They were married in 1995 in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, at the beautiful Thorncrown Chapel.

After graduating from Burns Flat High School in 1988, Chad worked on B1 bombers at Tinker Air Force Base. He attended college at Rose State College in Midwest City and Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas. Other careers included working as a guard and unit manager at North Fork Correctional Facility in Sayre, Okla., working as an EMT and volunteer firefighter in Burns Flat and taking joy in being the Mr. Fixit/Go-To Guy at the family's Lucky C Bar Angus cow-calf operation. In all venues, he became known as the person who could always be depended upon.

When son Jacob joined the family, Chad threw himself wholeheartedly into being a dad, sharing a love of Marvel movies with Jacob and becoming active in Boy Scouts, which included going to a summer camp at Camp Hale in southeastern Oklahoma (dubbed Camp Hell because everything was uphill and rocky) and hauling a Scout trailer all the way to K-M Scout Ranch in the Moccasin Mountains of Montana. He also loved traveling with Holly on her work trips, and one of the highlights for him was tracking on horseback with the U. S. Border Patrol in California. The patrol officers were impressed with the tracking skills that Chad had perfected in those childhood woodland adventures.

The lifetime of making memories ended on Feb. 9, 2025, when heart issues stole Chad away from his grieving family. Besides Holly and Jacob of the home in Burns Flat, Chad is survived by two brothers, Richard, of Edmond, and Steve, of Burns Flat. He was preceded in death by his parents, whom he had lovingly cared for at their life's end, an older brother, Loy, and his constant feline companion, Speedy.

A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Feb. 22, 2025, at the Weatherford Federated Church, 302 Custer St., Weatherford, Okla. A reception will follow in which friends are invited to share their memories of Chad. The service will also be livestreamed on the Weatherford Federated Church Facebook page.

Memorial donations for Chad can be directed to cat-rescue efforts at the Cordell Animal Shelter Project (CASP) or Save 4 Paws, an Oklahoma City-based cat rescue.

Memorial Service: 2:00 p.m., Saturday, February 22, 2025

Weatherford Federated Church

Weatherford, Oklahoma

Under the direction of Ray & Martha's Funeral Home, Cordell, Oklahoma.