C.A. Curly Denning was born August 22, 1923, in Empire, Oklahoma, to Chester A. Denning, Sr. and Bertha Bailey Denning. He passed from this life Friday, November 19, 2004, at the Jefferson County Hospital in Waurika, Oklahoma, at the age of eighty-one. Curly attended high school in Comanche, Oklahoma. He served his country in World War II as a corporal in the United States Army from 1944 to 1946. While in the Army he received two Bronze Stars and various medals and ribbons. He and Joyce Pewitt were married October 24, 1947, in Henrietta, Texas. She preceded him in death April 24, 1995. Curly was in the trucking business from 1947 to 1961. He was a Jefferson County deputy sheriff from 1961 to 1969. He operated Curly's Longhorn Club from 1970 to 1979. He was a rancher for many years, a member of the Ryan Masonic Lodge, and the American Legion.

Survivors include: three daughters - Charlotte Knutson and her husband Milton, of Waurika, OK, Nancy Roark of Ryan, OK, and Lynn Henderson and her husband David, of Waurika, OK; two sisters - Wanda Shoffner of Hurricane, WV, and Grace Parsons of Oklahoma City, OK; six grandchildren - Jodie Roberts and her husband Tony, Todd Overstreet and his wife Shelly, Tate Roark and his wife Sally, Chet Hooper and his wife Nicole, Whitney VanEtten and her husband Steve, and Courtney Young and her husband Avery; eight grandchildren; and three step-grandchildren - Christina Knutson, Holly Long and her husband Shelby, and Jason Henderson.

He was preceded in death by his parents, his wife Joyce, one son-in-law, Allen Ray Hooper, Jr., and one brother.

Funeral services for Mr. Denning were at 2:30 PM, Monday, November 22, 2004, at the First Baptist Church in Ryan, Oklahoma, with Steve Harshaw and Aaron Summers officiating. Burial was in the Ryan Cemetery under the direction of Dudley Funeral Home of Ryan.