Published: July 01, 2008 02:12 pm            

Angele I. Irons Primmer

Angele I. Irons Primmer, Ponca City resident, died Friday, June 27, 2008, in the Ponca City Medical Center. She was 66 years of age.

A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. on Wednesday in the Trout Funeral Home Chapel.

Angele was born July 17, 1941, to Lymon Irons and Lena Mae Spears Irons in Ponca City.

She was married to Millard (LaVern) Primmer, from Alaska, who preceded her in death. Angele was a graduate of Oklahoma State University with a master’s degree in history

Angie was an extraordinary person whose intelligence and persona was such that she pursued many interests with intense passion. Music and history were her first and last loves. She was the first person in Oklahoma who received the Aaron Award in music while in Ponca City High School and went on to teach the Drum and Bugle Corps at Chilocco for a period and band at Ringling High School.

It was history that truly occupied her time through the adult years of her life having graduated from OSU with a history major. After graduation, she taught the last one room schoolhouse in Kay County until it was closed, then she pursued writing which she did throughout the rest of her life as circumstances dictated.

In her early years, Angie wrote for several children’s magazines while starting a local business. Gradually, however, history again became a major force in her life as she began to write for True West and Old West magazines under Angie Irons, contributing over a hundred articles and becoming a member of the Western Writers’ Association. During this time, she became interested in treasure hunting, having mastered a metal detector and became a member of a local treasure-hunting club. At this time, she also began contributing articles to Treasures Inc., magazine cover pictures and later was editor of the magazine until poor health intervened.

Shortly before marrying for a last time, Angie had a stroke and found herself, her dogs and her possessions in a moving van on the Alcan Highway to Alaska. She recovered much of her mobility, under the care of her husband, who even took her into the Alaskan bush where they did gold dredging.

She returned to Ponca, her husband passing away, and resumed her pursuit of history. She worked at home researching various western subjects, in particular the Custer massacre, which is still tinged with mystery as to what the true sequence of events were during that tragic day. In the last four years, she took on freelance researching and came to the attention of the University of Michigan. The last two years, she had taken on a massive research project for the Michigan University on the Five Civilized Tribes and employed grad students from OSU to do much of the traveling and footwork needed.

She became friends with may of the members of the tribes, even interviewing those over 100 years old before their recollections of tribal life faded into obscurity. A great light has gone and history owes her a great debt for her contributions.

She was preceded in death by her father, Lymon Irons.

She is survived by her mother, Lena Mae Irons.

Memorial contributions may be made to St. Jude Children’s Hospital, P.O. Box 1818, Memphis, TN 38101-9903.

The family will greet friends at 901 N. Fourth Street in Ponca City.

        

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