Bill Larkin, WWII Veteran, to receive honorary diploma - News - Skiatook JournalWilliam Larkin, WWII Veteran, father, and current Claremore resident, will be awarded an honorary diploma by Skiatook High School and participate in graduation ceremonies with the class of 2015.
Bill Larkin, also known as Slim because he was 6'4 and weighed all of 160lbs, attended Skiatook High School from 9th grade and almost completed his high school education in 1943. Larkin left high school early to join the United States Marine Corps. Larkin was just 17 years old.
Larkin was born in June 1924 on a farm house east of Avant. His mother died when he was five years old and his father moved the rest of the family to Skiatook when he was entering 8th grade.
Larkin played football and basketball for Coach Hap Dunlap, but left school at the end of basketball season to enlist. The Marine Corps rejected Larkin the first time he tried to enlist because he was too tall, but a couple weeks later, he was accepted. When asked if he wasn't sure if he was 18, Bill said, "I guess I am. I had two birthdays that year."
Larkin received orders to go overseas after boot camp at Camp Pendleton in San Diego. He immediately called his high school sweetheart, Lois Hendrickson, and proposed. Because of the noise from other Marines and having to use outdoor payphone, Bill didn't realize he wasn't talking to Lois, but her sister who was already married with two children. No one told Bill until he had returned from the war and he had been married to Lois for several months.
During WWII, Larkin served with the 3rd Marine Division and Guam and Iwo Jima. He drove a tank on Iwo Jima. His unit was training for the invasion of Japan when the war ended. He was discharged after three years of service and returned home in 1945, hitchhiking the entire way because bus and train employees were on strike.
Bill and Lois were married on January 19, 1946. They have been married for 69 years. The couple settled at their current home in Claremore in 1963.
Since leaving the military Larkin ran a gas station, was a member of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, and a cross country truck driver. He has been to all 50 states.
Bill and Lois have a son and daughter, four grandchildren, and eight great-grandchildren.
Eric Sims, a Skiatook graduate with the class of 1999, met Larkin at Circle Cinema in Tulsa at a WWII showing. He found out that after 72 years, Larkin still did not have his high school diploma. Sims called Skiatook principal Will Parker to try to get that corrected.
Sims said his inspiration for making sure Larkin received his high school diploma was just, "the littlest thing he could do." Sims believes, "we owe them so much. Even after 70 years, we still owe them and we haven't forgotten."
Larkin will attend graduation ceremonies May 21 at the Brooks Walton Activity Center and receive his high school diploma with the Skiatook High School class of 2015. Eric Sims will attend the ceremony.
