Marcus "Frank" Frank Payton

Marcus (Mark) Frank Payton passed from this life on Friday, April 15, at 95 years of age. He was preceded in death by his parents and his beloved wife of 67 years, Nancy Lee Payton. He is survived by his two children, Sharon Lynn Kimmel and Mark F. Payton III; and his two grandchildren, Sean Kimmel and Amy Kimmel.

He was born March 2, 1921, in Chicago, Illinois, to Marcus Payton and Bessie Jane Dickey. Mark graduated from Belle Plaine high school in Belle Plaine Iowa, where, after overcoming childhood polio, he became an all-state football player. He afterwards attended the University of Iowa where he graduated summa cum laude in geology before serving in the U.S. Army during WWII. The Army sent him to Syracuse University to study civil engineering.

Upon his discharge from the Army after the war, he returned to the University of Iowa to study law where he met his wife for life, Nancy Lee Wheelehan. After he obtained his law degree with distinction and became an attorney with the Iowa bar in 1949, he and Nancy Lee were married. After his marriage, Mark and Nancy lived in several cities, including Ft. Worth, Texas, where his daughter was born; Oklahoma City, where his son was born; and Bartlesville, Oklahoma, before finally settling in Tulsa.

He went to work for Cities Service Oil Company in 1949, moving to various cities and rising in the corporation until his retirement in 1981 as Director of Land. He was a charter member of the American Association of Petroleum Landmen and taught extension classes at the University of Oklahoma.

Mark was always involved in activities: mountain climbing when he was in college, hunting, fishing, golf, and later became an avid photographer.

Memorial service will be held on Thursday, April 21, at 10:00 a.m. at St. John’s Episcopal Church, 4200 S. Atlanta Place, Tulsa, Oklahoma.