Howard DucoteyFairfax, OK

Howard Ducotey

October 23, 1942 — December 25, 2025

Howard Stanislaus Ducotey passed from this life on December 26, 2025, at the age of 83 years old after a lengthy illness. He was born October 23, 1942, in the Fairfax Oklahoma Hospital to his late parents, Mary Annie Pyeatte Ducotey and Paul Irvin Ducotey and his adopted mother Betty Viola Ducotey Higdon “WaWa”. His grandparents were Vernie Ducotey and Tannis Ducotey of Fairfax, Oklahoma and Howard and Alice Pyeatte, of Cane Hill, Arkansas.

Howard married Janie Spiva Ducotey on August 28, 1965, and two sons were born from that union. Later, he married Chystal Dimmick in 1993, and one daughter was born from that union.

At the age of 10 years old, he learned the art of welding at Tulsa Welding School. Since he was so young, his grandmother would work on her knitting and watch over him while he practiced welding in the family farm blacksmith shop. He always had a very strong work ethic, and by the age of 10 he had earned enough that he was able to buy his first automobile. However, he was too young to have a driver’s license. He remedied that dilemma by contracting some older boys in his neighborhood to drive him wherever he might want to go. Of course, the boys were thrilled to have wheels to drive. As a result, Howard became a very young traveling man.

Howard’s Uncle Ross Higdon taught him the art of bartering. He accompanied his uncle often when he was buying and selling. When his uncle was making a deal for a different automobile, Howard would go along to observe the bartering process, and to help drive the new car back home. Many times, he was so young he could barely see over the steering wheel.

He was an adventurous child. The family often told the story about the day that many of Howard’s aunts and uncles visited the family farm. While the aunts and uncles were in the house, Howard, his older brother and his older male cousin decided they needed to practice their boy scout fire starting skills. The three boys walked out into the grazing pasture to light the fire. As a result, several dozen acres were burned. His livid and stressed mother drove home the lesson of learning to make better choices when picking venues for starting fire, by giving all three boys a good shellacking.

On hot summer nights, during his teenage years, Howard and his buddies would scale the city swimming pool fence and take a refreshing, midnight dip. One night they were about to be discovered, and the scramble back over the fence was a site to behold. One of the boys hooked his posterior on the top of the fence, but they all escaped without being caught. However, the next week proved to be less than joyful for the injured boy when he tried to sit down.

On occasion, Howard and his brother would drive up to the Chapmon and Barnard ranch to hang out with the cowboys. The family that cooked for the cowboys had three beautiful daughters, which was to be the incentive for the trips.

His brother and some buddies, that lived in an oil field camp close to the family farm, decided it would be hilarious to turn the neighbors’ chickens loose in their house when they knew they were going to be gone for the evening. However, the neighbor was not gone for just one night. They were gone for a week. That incident turned out to not be as sidesplitting funny as anticipated. In the same neighborhood, Howard and his buddies caught a goat and artfully rigged a harness for the goat and hosted it up the flagpole to replace the American flag. The goat was unharmed and was lowered down soon after the prank happened. He often remarked that it was fortunate that his mother was unaware of their mischief. It goes without saying, his childhood was colorful and he was surrounded by many friends and a huge family that adored him.

Howard graduated from Fairfax High School at the age of 16 where he became a celebrated star runner on the football team. He was described as being “quick as a gnat”. He was noted far and wide for his football abilities. During that time, on Friday nights, all the streets were filled with cars and people had to park on the shoulders of the highway that ran in front of the stadium, to watch the games. This was especially true when the opposing team was Hominy High School. It seemed as if the whole county had come to Fairfax for those events. The Fairfax football team won the coveted state football awards when Howard was part of the team.

After his high school graduation, he attended Northeastern A & M College in Miami, Oklahoma for one year. The next year he attended Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Oklahoma for one year. The following year he returned to the family farm and worked odd jobs as a bartender, an automobile mechanic, and he ran a successful firewood business. When the Viet Nam war was raging, he joined the Oklahoma National Guard Unit out of Fairfax, Oklahoma. After basic training, in the Guards, he went back to school at Northern Oklahoma Jr. College for one semester. That semester he met his future wife to be, Janie Spiva. After his marriage to Janie, he transferred back to Northeastern State University and focused on a double major in public school industrial arts education and accounting. During his last semester, he did his public-school internship as an industrial arts teacher at Hominy Public High School, where he also became an assistant coach for the Hominy High School football team, his old high school rival team. In January of 1968, he earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Northeastern State University.

Immediately after graduating from Northeastern State University, he started working at Conoco Oil Company in Ponca City, Oklahoma. He became the head of the crude oil trading division at Conoco, while building a successful farming and ranching business. In that business he raised Brangus cattle, a variety of other livestock and field crops. He continued working in his farming and ranching business after retirement from Conoco. However, very soon after retirement, Conoco Oil Company requested his return so he could advise the company’s attorneys about the accounting in a lawsuit that saved the company millions of dollars. He was recognized as being a very gifted accountant.

He served in the Oklahoma National Guard from 1964 to 1969. While he was serving in the Guards, he built a wood burning barbeque smoker for his Guard Unit. During Guard duty weekends he would cook for his fellow Guardsmen. On those weekends you would often find him at the local grocery store, shopping for enormous steaks to feed his fellow Guardsmen. The Guard troops went on duty in anticipation of leaving satisfied with bellies full of delicious, barbequed steaks. While in the National Guards basic training he won shooting and running awards.

Howard was a member of the Ponca City Rotary Club and a proud member of the Osage Indian Nation. His Osage Nation membership came from his linage from his Grandfather, Tannis Ducotey and his father Paul Irvin Ducotey. He also was a member of Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Fairfax, Oklahoma, where he served as an altar boy during his childhood.

Some of his favorite past times were hunting, fishing, barbequing, socializing, watching football, playing cards with family and friends and working in the fields with his tractors and other farming machinery. His favorite reading material was the “Farm Journal” and “OSU’s Feeds and Feeding” textbook. He had a natural, mechanical ability and was very resourceful. Howard passed his extensive knowledge of mechanics, farming and ranching to all three of his children.

Survivors include his sons, Howard Stanislaus Ducotey II, Shannon Paul Ducotey, and daughter, Megan Ducotey Crenshaw. Four grandsons, Mark Ducotey, John Ducotey, Reese Crenshaw, and Cruze Crenshaw.

Howard was preceded in death by his older brother Paul Irvin Ducotey II and his parents Mary Annie Ducotey and Paul Irvin Ducotey and his adopted mother, Betty Viola Ducotey Higdon.

Arrangements are entrusted to Grace Memorial Chapel Funeral Home in Ponca City, Oklahoma. A Mass of Christian burial will be celebrated on January 5, 2026, at 1:00 P.M. at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church at 333 S. 8th St, Fairfax, Oklahoma. Burial will immediately follow at the City Cemetery in Fairfax, Oklahoma. Rosary and prayer service will be held 6 p.m. Sunday, January 4, 2026, at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Fairfax, OK. Services in care of Grace Memorial Chapel of Ponca City, OK.

Online condolences are available at www.gracememorialchapel.net