Corbett Lee Reagan

Corbett Lee Reagan of Prague, Oklahoma passed away on Saturday, October 20th, 2012, at the age of 91. He was born on July 6, 1921, in the Bark Camp Community west of Kennett, Missouri, the seventh child of Benjamin Hargus and Mary Elretta Reagan. Corbett attended Bark Camp School and served in the Army Air Corps during World War II. He was a member of the 440th TTG, 96th Squadron, flying transport planes on a variety of missions. He spoke to his family with great humility of piloting one of the first planes carrying badly needed supplies into Bastogne, Belgium on December 26, 1944, and of flying POW’s out of concentration camps at the end of the war. He didn’t share his stories often or easily, but his experiences touched him deeply. After the war he returned to Kennett where he received his high school diploma from Kennett High School and began his career as a residential and commercial contractor. Corbett married Jeffie Jean Bohannon of Kennett on February 8th, 1944 in Austin, Texas. They had five children: Corbett Lee II, Stephen Robert, Julia Anne, Richard Dane, and Marian Sue. They lived in Kennett for more than thirty years and during that time he built hundreds of homes, dozens of apartments, and numerous commercial buildings in and around Dunklin County, primarily in Kennett and Malden. Corbett and Jeffie Jean moved to Prague, Oklahoma in 1978, where he and his youngest son, Rick, raised running quarter horses and commercial beef cattle. Jeffie Jean died in Prague in 1981. He married Jo Ann Wright Hicklin in Kennett on March 2, 1985; she joined Corbett in Oklahoma and they enjoyed life together until she passed away on November 9, 2010. In his later years, Corbett enjoyed visiting with friends and family and reading his Bible and other books. He particularly enjoyed history, biography and books about Native America. Corbett accepted Christ as his savior at an early age and at the time of his death he attended the First Baptist Church of Prague. Corbett was preceded in death by his parents, three brothers, Earl, Hargus, and J.D. Reagan, six sisters, Betty, Bobby and Marceline Reagan, Lona Mae James, Lena Benson, and Venida Grijalva, one granddaughter, Jeannette Bockhold, and one great-granddaughter, Kaitlynne Sue Behymer. Survivors include three sons, Corbett Lee Reagan II of Ft. Worth, Texas, Stephen Robert Reagan and wife, El Reba, of Springfield, Missouri; Richard Dane Reagan and wife, Judy, of Prague, Oklahoma; two daughters, Julia Anne Harmon and husband, Tom, of Shawnee, Oklahoma and Marian Sue Buster and husband, Rev. Terry Buster, of Palmyra, Missouri; one stepson, Lee Hicklin and wife, Michele, of Painter, Virginia; 16 grandchildren, 34 great-grandchildren and 3 great-great-grandchildren; three sisters, Ravenell Phillipe, of Columbia, Missouri, Glenda Larke and husband Chuck, of Royal Oak, Michigan, and Carmalita Hancock, of Duarte, California, as well as many extended family members and friends. Viewing and visitation will be at Parks Brothers Funeral Home in Prague on Sunday, October 21, from 11:00 AM to 9:00 PM, and Monday, October 22, from 8:00 AM to 9:00 PM. Local funeral arrangements by Parks Brothers Funeral Service. Funeral services will be in Kennett, Missouri on Thursday, October 25, 2012 at the McDaniel Funeral Home, beginning with visitation at 10:00 a.m. and a memorial service at 11:00 a.m. followed by burial at the Dunklin Memorial Gardens. Services will be conducted by Corbett's son-in-law, Rev. Terry Buster.