Edmond R.

Hites

Edmond R. Hites, 80, passed away at home on the 5th day of November, 2026, after several months in hospice care. In the days preceding his death, he was surrounded by his family.

Ed, as he was known, was born in Bristow, Oklahoma on January 26, 1946, the only child of William Edmond and Elizabeth Marie Hites. He grew up in Lindsay, Oklahoma, and was a graduate of Lindsay High School in 1964. He attended Eastern State University in Ada, Oklahoma for a short time before enlisting in the United States Air Force.

During his adolescence, “Eddie” went fishing before school (his teacher was never happy when he arrived encompassed by the odor of stink bait), joined his father in the oil fields, played the tuba throughout high school, and was a teenage prankster, once placing a friend’s car on cinder blocks.

In 1966, Ed enlisted in the United States Air Force and left Lindsay for basic training at Chanute Air Force Base in Champaign County, Illinois. During his time in the USAF, Ed was stationed and assigned temporary duty (TDY) at twenty-nine various bases worldwide including Little Rock Air Force Base in Little Rock, Arkansas; Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas; Eielson Air Force Base in Fairbanks, Alaska; Torrejón Air Force Base in Madrid, Spain; Anderson Air Force Base in Guam, and Kadena Air Force Base in Okinawa, Japan. A Vietnam War Veteran, Ed was crew chief and mechanic on KC-135 tankers, which were responsible for refueling fighter and reconnaissance planes in flight during long-distance flying operations in Southeast Asia, earning the rank of E-4 Sergeant and the title of “Maintenance Man of the Year,” a unit level award honoring 24-hour flightline work under extreme heat, monsoon rains, and hostile conditions, recognizing Ed as a top mechanic during his time overseas. Although he was proud of his service to this country, he did not often openly discuss his time overseas during the Vietnam War theater.

After his enlistment, Ed returned to Oklahoma in the spring of 1970 and, that summer, met his future bride, Bonnie Sharon Mullins of Abilene, Texas, while working/goofing off in the pit with his friend and owner of Freeman Racing during the 1970 NHRA Springnationals at Dallas International Motor Speedway in Lewisville, Texas. Nine short months later the two were married on April 9, 1971.

Ed and Sharon moved to Stillwater, Oklahoma in 1971 where they made their home and, in 1978, welcomed their only child, Jessica Rhea. Ed was a doting father, carrying pictures of his daughter in his wallet and talking about and showing those photos with anyone who would listen. On the rare occasions that he would be available to pick his daughter up from daycare, he would lift her up and over the gate to the playground and carry her to the car, stopping for Tootsie Rolls at Central Drug in Downtown Stillwater on the way home. The two of them would later enjoy fishing days together at Lake Carl Blackwell and motorcycle rides down “The Strip” setting off car alarms, among other mischievous adventures, and shared the same sense of humor.

Ed worked for Xerox in the Stillwater area as a Customer Service Representative, which is really a glorified term for copy machine fix-it guy, for 35 years. During that time, he became known around the area at the businesses he worked at as “Ed the Joke Man.” His test pages included funny sayings, slogans, and jokes and he would leave them for the office staff after fixing their copiers.

In 2002, Ed was present to welcome his first grandson, Kobie James, and his second grandson, Court Aaron, arrived in 2009. As proud as he was of his only daughter, his pride and love for his grandsons far surpassed that. He attended elementary school parties and field trips with his boys and seldom missed a sporting event until the day he was unable to attend. Often, “Poppy” said that if he had known how much fun grandchildren would be, he would have had them first.

Ed and Sharon moved to Perkins, Oklahoma in 2010 where they resided until his death, sharing 55 years of marriage to each other.

Throughout his life, Ed was a die-hard fan of the Oklahoma Sooners. He was a 32nd-degree Mason in the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry and a member of the India Shriners. He had been a member of the Stillwater Bassmasters at Lake Carl Blackwell and enjoyed tournament fishing across the state of Oklahoma in the 1980s and 1990s. Ed was also a member of the HOG Land Run Chapter of Stillwater and the Gold Wing Riders Association.

He is served by his wife Sharon; their daughter Jessica, her husband Josh, and his grandson Court Sumrall; by his grandson Kobie Sumrall and his fiancé Karen; his Aunt Dorothy; and many cousins.

My dad was one of the great ones, though not the easiest to get along with. We were too much alike and spent more time butting heads during my teen years than anything. However, my whole life I saw him as this larger than life colossus, as 10 feet tall and bulletproof. He was complicated, but he loved hard. His personality was truly one of a kind, his laughter infectious. He liked to have fun, to make people laugh, and, hopefully, leave them with a smile.