Ralph Clayton Sanderlin

Known as Clay or Clayton his entire life, Ralph Clayton Sanderlin's life illustrates that fortune indeed favors the bold and tenacious. Born on December 8, 1928, in Electra, Texas to Ralph Cecil Sanderlin and Agnes Anna Hawley Sanderlin, Clayton was baby brother to three older sisters who adored him all of their days. Times were lean - and because his father worked as a roustabout, Clay's first home was a one-room shack in the middle of an oilfield. They were poor but had tremendous love, loyalty and ingenuity binding them together. While a child in Houston, the family acquired their first radio and a life-long love of story and song was established.

Clay's father was a high-end machinist with an intelligence and work ethic that eventually moved them out of poverty and landed him on faculty at University of Texas, Arlington. Clay worked as an ice boy, delivering big blocks of ice for early refrigerators. During WW2 the family lived in Grand Prairie, Texas so that his father could work at North American Aviation making planes for the war effort. Clay started fixing broken watches for his father's workmates to bring in extra money while he was attending Grand Prairie High School where he was the football quarterback, a championship wrestler and soon a serious boxer. Just after graduating, Nancy Jane, his oldest sister, was suddenly widowed with a young child. Rather than taking a sports scholarship to Cornell, Clay became a gemologist so that he and Nancy could open Sanderlin's Jewelry in downtown Grand Prairie. He continued to fix watches and that skill made him attractive to the newly established Air Force as Clay enlisted during the Korean War.

On Christmas Eve 1952 he left for Korea but was last minute rerouted to Japan's Brady Airfield. When it was discovered he was recently the Welter Weight Golden Gloves Champion of Texas, he was assigned to the military's boxing circuit eventually becoming the coach. He was on his base's football team and was assigned to lifeguard at the base's beach. While lifeguarding in Japan, he read about Jacques Cousteau inventing the regulator needed for scuba diving. Inspired, Clay used his inventive skills to create his own regulator from a tin can and some rubber, attaching it to a homemade air tank. Diving into the ocean near numerous pearl divers, he stayed under water for 15 minutes. When he surfaced, a huge crowd had gathered thinking he had drowned. They cheered in amazement at this man wearing a crazy contraption built of airplane parts.

At the age of 26, Clay focused on college at North Texas State University in Denton, Texas. It was there he met the love of his life, Dorothy Ruth Pickett. Although her parents were concerned about his being seven years older, Clay spent the summer working with the family on the annual wheat harvest and he gained their approval. The couple was married on January 27, 1957, in Bristow, OK despite a blizzard keeping all but the groom from crossing the Texas state line to attend.

By stretching their pennies, both Clay and Dorothy earned their Masters in Business Administration, with Clay graduating Summa Cum Laude. Because Clay accepted a teaching job at Loyola Marymount, the couple hitched their 30-foot trailer to an old Cadillac and set out for new adventures in Los Angeles. While pursuing his doctorate in business administration at the University of Southern California, Clay taught business mathematics and marketing at both UCLA and USC.

Clay always seemed to be a part of various interesting deals where his business skills proved valuable. He opened a steak restaurant and bar on PCH 1 in Redondo Beach, surveyed land for the state of California by horseback where there were no roads and became an expert in the real estate title business. And while real estate was his predominant focus, he even dabbled in the record industry, recording and marketing an artist whose songs were "all about the beach".

Their son, Bryan Clayton Sanderlin was born in 1963 and soon after yet another much longed for dream came to fruition with the purchase of a 100+ acre ranch south of the Antelope Valley. Hidden Springs Dude Ranch hosted Boy Scout retreats with 40+ horses and an old silver mine. Clay built all the structures, bunkhouses to resemble an old Western movie set by hand with hired help from the neighboring Boy's home for disadvantaged youth. The ranch years brought fundamental memories to hundreds of visitors and positively impacted many young lives with the great outdoors and cowboy songs.

In 1971 the family relocated to Muskogee, OK to be nearer family and soon welcomed daughter Ann Marie Sanderlin (Sutton) in 1972. Clay continued in real estate as a broker, opening American Real Estate, employing up to eight agents and mentoring many more. As president of the Muskogee Real Estate Association he overhauled the antiquated system to be more equitable and ruffled feathers in the process. Despite his successes in life, Clay never forgot his humble beginnings. He found immense pleasure in helping those folks who just required a little help to move forward- from those who needed a good word at the bank to attain a loan or assisting with information about purchasing a home to create generational wealth. His quiet philanthropy inspired at least five sets of grateful first-time homeowner parents to name their sons Clayton.

Clay was an upbeat, positive, and lighthearted man with a dry sense of humor. He was an avid gardener and known to burst out in song at any time, plus could play a mean harmonica. He was a devoted brother, brother-in-law and incredible uncle. Clay was a Boy Scout as a child, a Cub Scout Leader and lived by the Boy Scout principles of being trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent. The Cub Scout motto was his favorite, always telling his kids and grandkids by way of a goodbye to "DYB" - Do Your Best.

Clay died in Broken Arrow, OK on June 3, 2024, at the age of 95-years-old. He leaves behind a legacy of love, hard work, encouragement and unwavering dedication to his family and friends. He is survived by Dorothy Ruth, his wife of 67 years, son Bryan and wife Mary, daughter Ann Marie and husband Jimmy Sutton, along with five adoring grandchildren, Katy and Matthew Sanderlin, and Emily (Sanderlin) and Samuel Mitchell of Tulsa, Josephine and Clayton "Link" Sutton of Nashville, TN.

In lieu of flowers, your donations, supplies or volunteer work hours can be gifted in his name to Tulsa Boys Home at: < https://www.tulsaboyshome.org/donate >

Visitation will be 6-8pm, Thursday, June 6, 2024 at Moore Southlawn, 9350 E. 51st, Tulsa, OK. Funeral Service will be 10:30 A.M., Friday, June 7, 20224 at Moore Southlawn Chapel. Moore's Southlawn 918-663-2233