The folloing was taken from A History of the Moses Musgrave Family... by Duane and Marie Wilson Musgrave, 1998 (published posthumously).
Oakley "Duane" Musgrave was born to Josiah "Frank" Musgrave and Bertha Augusta French Musgrave on May 23, 1923 in Burns, Kansas. He married Eva Marie Wilson in Presbyterian Church in Little Rock, Arkansas. Duane was baptized in Macksville, KS on April 17, 1952 in the First Christian Church.
"Chid was a nickname that Duane's family often called him. As the youngest, I am sure Duane's stories are very different from the older boys. He wrote six pages on the different happenings as he was growing up and naturally he seemed to think they all took advantage of him.
Marie and Duane had gone all through High School together. They started dating in their Junior year at Chase High School, Chase, Kansas. Three years after graduation they got married and had a wonderful life.
Duane was in the Army from 1943 to 1946. He was a Staff Sergeant and was stationed in the Phillippines for nine months. After the first month, the war was over, however they still had plenty of snipers.
When Duane and Marie were married, Duane was stationed in Ft. Smith, Arkansas. The next Saturday, they were transferred to Muskogee, OK. All Duane had was an beautiful, black Indian motorcycle. That's what how they moved to Muskogee. The Masonic lodge gave them a room until they could find an apartment, which they did the next day.
Marie was in Washington State when Duane got home from the service. After a short time of doing photography, Duane went to work for Skielly Oil Company for 16 years. Then, they moved to Sedan and later bought his folks' farm. He was a surveyor and inspector for the U.S. Government, Soil Conservation Service for 21 years, until his retirement in 1985. Marie and Duane retired to Springdale, Arkansas, where they had inherited an acres of landwith a trailer house and large garage. We could not entertain our family in a trailer house, so we built a nice brick home and attached it to the large shop/garage.
Duane's last wish after he found out he had prostate cancer was to get Marie moved back to Kansas, which he did one week before he died.
Duane's Eulogy, written by his children:
The most important and memorable lesson Duane taught to his children is captured on a placard above the stage of the old Chase High School Gymnasium. Duane took his sons to the gym to read it when they were vvery young, then reminded them and repeated the lesson throughout his life. The quote was from Grantland Rice and read: "For when that one great scorer comes to mark against your name. He writes not that you won or lost, but how you played the game."
Duane was insistent that all of his children knew how important Marie was to him in the past ffew months and repeatedly and how thankful he was that he Had Marie as his helpmate.
They worked as partners in bulding or remodeling every house they ever lived in. Marie would paint and paper, Duane would carpenter and wire. They shared the hard work and their dedication to their family.
His children remember a blend of time spent in the oil patch, and time spent on the farm. Duane himself was also a blend. His physical strength, his hard hat, and his steel-toed boots were habits from his years with Skelly Oil Company. Old habits fortunately are hard to break. Once, just after moving to the farm just outside of Sedan, Kansas, a horse [he was shoeing] kicked Duane in the head sending him [tumbling] and grumbling. His hard hat was caved in, but Duane was fine and continued to wear that hard hat for some time afterward.
His stability, his skill in all trades, and his intelligence are rememberedd by all his family, but his most significant and most refined trait was his sense of humor. Everyone, friends and family alike, were drawn to Duane's wit. He used humor to put people at ease, to entertain, and most important lately to cushion his own pain, not only for himself, but for those that shared in his pain.
Duane's fifteen grandchildren will all remembeer their grandpa for different things; some for lake outings and boat rides, some for going with Grandpa to feed his horse Sonny, and some remember him giving rides on his motorcycle. All will remember him playing basketball with them, his sense of humor and his pride in his family.
The scorer has come, and Duane played the game very well.
