Leslie Edward Greathouse

While we are heartbroken by the loss of Leslie Edward “Les” Greathouse, we take comfort in the remarkable life he lived and the stories he leaves behind. Surrounded by his family, Les died February 13, 2026, at his home in Oklahoma City. He was 87 years old. Born October 22, 1938, in Kilgore, Texas, and raised on the Gulf Coast in Texas City, Les learned early the values that would guide him throughout his life: discipline, decisiveness, and resolve. A 1956 graduate of Texas City High School, he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps at just 17 years old and was stationed at Camp Pendleton. He carried the Marine Corps’ code of integrity and responsibility into every chapter that followed. After earning a degree in accounting from Texas Tech University, where he was a member of Kappa Sigma fraternity, he completed advanced studies at the Graduate School of Banking at the University of Wisconsin and the Graduate School of Finance at Stanford University. Les met the love of his life, Sidney Sudberry, when she was a “beautiful, fresh-faced” college student preparing to leave for the summer as a counselor at Camp Longhorn. Determined and intentional, he made certain their paths crossed again. They married on June 27, 1964, beginning a devoted partnership that spanned 61 years and anchored every adventure that followed. His career in banking began in Fort Smith, Arkansas, at City National Bank, but in 1968, a pivotal meeting with Gene Rainbolt led him to Shawnee, Oklahoma, where he became Executive Vice President of Federal National Bank. By 1971, he was named President. Under his leadership, the bank flourished. In 1988, he moved to Oklahoma City and served as the first President of BancFirst. During those years, he forged many lifelong friendships, especially working alongside Gene, whose example and friendship became one of the most treasured experiences of his life. Les retired in 1995 at the age of 56. Retirement was not an ending, but a new beginning. Together, Les and Sidney traveled widely and lived boldly. In Paris, they made a temporary home for several months while Les learned French and studied drawing at the Louvre. He delighted in hosting friends and family who made the journey overseas. He and Sidney explored the Amazon and cherished time spent with their children and grandchildren in California. He backpacked across Eastern Europe and through Russia and Siberia to China. Along the way, he made new friends, traveled the Trans-Siberian Railway, and even shared yak’s milk with his Mongolian hosts. He believed in experiencing a place fully—its ideas, its people, its spirit. And yet, for all his travels, he loved being home, surrounded by his books and music, in the quiet order he created, with Sidney nearby. To his children, he was both a formidable presence and a doorway to the wider world. He taught them that discipline creates freedom and that through focus, persistence, and imagination, one can build the life of one’s dreams. Though pragmatic in business, privately he was the master of the grand gesture— spontaneous banana-split lunches, one-on-one trips with his children, thoughtful gifts and surprises. He treasured ski trips to Snowmass with Shawnee friends Dick Deem, Ronnie Turner, George VanWagner, and Charlie Hill. He loved sports—baseball in his youth, tennis and golf in later years—and was an enthusiastic fan of Sooner football and Thunder basketball. Les is survived by his wife, Sidney; his daughters Jennifer Greathouse and Leslie Greathouse (and Leslie’s husband David Gravelle); his son James Greathouse; and his Swiss daughter Susan Emmenegger (and her husband Axel Tschentscher). He was the proud grandfather of seven grandchildren: Jackson, Alice, and Meg Fall; Oscar and Charlotte Gravelle; and Swiss grandsons Marc and David Emmenegger. At the end of one long journey, Les once drafted a list titled “The Top 10 Ways to Know When Your Trip Is Over.” The entries were humorous and observant, but number ten carried no irony at all: “You can’t stand the thought of being without your loving wife for one more night.” For all his travels across continents and cultures, for all his intellectual pursuits and bold adventures, it was love that brought him home. Home was always Sidney and his family. And that steadfast love of family was the true work of his life. A private family service was held at Memorial Park Cemetery in Muskogee, Oklahoma. If you would like to make a donation in his memory, please donate to The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research at michaeljfox.org. The family of Leslie Edward Greathouse has entrusted his care, service and burial to Cliff & Carmen Garrett and Staff of Clifford D Garrett Family Funeral Homes, Fort Gibson and Muskogee. Online condolences may be left with the Greathouse family @ clifforddgarrettfamilyfh.com

Leslie Edward Greathouse

October 22, 1938 - February 13, 2026