Cleburn Franklin Driver

Cleburn was born to Zerurah and Maggie Townsley Driver on April 23, 1920, in Marshall County, Okla. He married Betty Louise Maness in 1941 and remained with her until her passing in 2001. Cleburn grew up on the original Chickasaw allotment, the family farm, near Kingston, Okla. When he was 17, he moved to Tulsa where he began his working life in business and industry and met his future bride. During the first years of World War II, he worked at Spartan Aircraft in Tulsa where military aircraft engines were produced. Towards the war's end, he was drafted into the Army and served one year before the war ended. In 1947, he moved his family to Fort Worth where he worked at Bell Helicopter from 1951 until retirement in 1985. He was proud of being the group of the first 100 employed by Bell Helicopter after the company moved here from Buffalo, N.Y. Cleburn was preceded in death by his wife, Betty Driver; his parents, Ruie and Maggie Lillian Townsley Driver; sister, Lois Driver Burke; son, John Franklin Driver; and great-grandson, Jared Maupin. Survivors: Son, David Cleburn Driver (Anne) of Portland; sister, Ruby Haden (Ed, deceased) of Kingston, Okla.; grandchildren, Rachel Mitchell (Robert) of Edmond, Okla., Jill Sarro (Robert) of Friendswood, Sally Driver of Katy, Jefferson Driver and Samuel Driver of Sanger, Laura Driver of San Marcos and Elizabeth Driver of Charleroi, Belgium; and great-grandchildren, Devin, Genevieve and Giselle Sarro. To send flowers or a memorial gift to the family of Cleburn Franklin Driver please visit our Sympathy Store.