Thoughts About James and Inice Keltner

It is difficult to classify people as only friends when they have been involved in you life for some seventy years. They are more than just friends they have become family.

Ruby and I were raised in the same neighborhood James and Inice lived in. One house separated the Keltner’s house from where I lived. Ruby lived about one-half away mile in another neighborhood. Everyone living in the area worked for the ITIO oil company. Ruby’s father and my father worked in the drilling and production departments and James worked in the Engineering Department. Ruby was always James and Inice’s favorite baby sitter for their two sons. Jimmy Joe and Georgie Dean.
While in high school Ruby’s father was transferred to northern Oklahoma where she graduated from Wyonna High School. Since Wyonna was truly a dead end town, Ruby decided to move back to Oklahoma City. Ruby always stayed in touch with the Keltner’s and was staying at a friends home when Inice asked her to move in with them. She moved her sons out of their bed room and on to an enclosed back porch and gave their room to Ruby.

James and Inice Keltner

I was home on furlough in January of 1944 and my father asked me if I knew Ruby had moved back to Oklahoma City and was living with the Keltner’s. He said “I am going that way and if she is there you can visit a while and I will pick you up later”. That visit cumulated in many more visits from where I was stationed, Paris Army Air Force Base near Paris, Texas.

We were married June 12, 1944. Two of the witnesses at our wedding were James and Inice Keltner. After the ceremony James took me aside and handed me a key. “I do not know what your plans are but the key I am giving you is to the Bridal suite at the Biltmore Hotel and it is yours for two nights. This is our wedding present to you and Ruby”. Needless to say for a Buck Sergeant living on seventy eight dollar per month plus flying pay this was a magnificent wedding present. Ruby and I spent two nights in the finest hotel in Oklahoma City complements of James and Inice Keltner.

The war had ended. The ITIO oil company no longer existed. Cities Service Oil company and the IT had merged with Cities becoming the surviving company. James was now in the business of manufacturing gauges that measure the down hole pressure and temperature of oil and gas reservoirs.

Inice knew Ruby was looking for a job as I planned to take advantage of the GI bill and attend Oklahoma University. She mentioned Cities Service would need a switch board operator as one of the operators planned to leave. Inice thought Ruby would fit right in as she already new nearly everyone in the company and had some experience as an operator. Ruby applied for the job and was hired. She worked along side Inice for four years.

I was starting my junior year at Oklahoma University when James and Inice dropped by. He knew I was working for a machine shop in my spare time and wanted to know if I would consider going to work for him. I could work anytime I was not involved with classes or studying. This included weekend’s, holidays or any other time I was free. He would always have a project for me to work on. The pay was an increase of fifty per cent from what I was receiving at JP Machine and Tool Company. I would be making ninety cents per hour as compared to sixty cents per hour.

James was not a graduate engineer but I have never met anyone that was more qualified to call themselves an engineer than James Keltner. He could come up with a solution for any problem that he encountered. He stressed quality in all of his work. I worked for James the last two years I was in Oklahoma University and to this day I believer he influences some of the decisions I make.
After graduation Ruby and I never lived in Oklahoma City, but we always stayed in touch with the Keltner’s and spent many nights in their home whenever we were in Oklahoma City. James passed away several years ago and Inice passed away recently. There has been no one help Ruby and I more than James and Inice get through some difficult times.

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