Funeral Held For Elderly Tulsa Attack Victim Bob Strait

The chapel at Floral Haven Cemetery was full of friends and family who wanted to pay their final respects.

Saturday, May 12th 2012, 5:46 pm

By: Tess Maune

Funeral Held For Elderly Tulsa Attack Victim Bob Strait

The family of an elderly man, who was badly beaten alongside his wife, pays their final respects.

Bob Strait, 90, died last week, just six weeks after he and his wife, Nancy, were attacked during a home invasion.

Police say in addition to being beaten, 85-year-old Nancy was sexually assaulted.

She died just days after the attack.

On Saturday, the Strait family tried to put the tragedy behind them, by paying tribute to both their parents.

Bob and Nancy Strait shared the kind of love most only dream about.

"Bob and Nancy met, married for the remainder of their long lives and faced every challenge head-on as one," read a letter from their son Bobby Glen.

The couple spent 65 years loving each other.

They were blessed with a big family -- six children and 18 grandchildren

During the service, their daughter, Andra read letters written by the each of the couple's children.

She says she remembers as a little girl, she caught her parents kissing on the couch.

"I thought, ‘How sweet, daddy.' Then I thought, ‘Well, Lord, you had six kids.' And while a smile came into my heart, I knew just as I always did, my mom and dad loved each other," Audra said.

Bob was a WWII hero, a paratrooper on D-Day and even earned a bronze star.

He was hard-working, humble and well respected by his children.

His sons' favorite pastime was flying model airplanes with his father.

"The used to fly ‘em with me when we were small, then when i was a little bit bigger, he'd build them and I'd break them," Bobby Glenn said.

Nancy was a stay-at-home mother.

She raised their children in a home that may have been short on money, but was always long on love.

"She was kind and generous to a fault in the giving of her love," Bobby Glen's said in his letter. "Nancy forgave every offense; she turned no one away. Nancy was the glue that held the family together."

Sadly for the Straits, the final moments they shared as a couple differed greatly from the happy life they built together.

"I want you to know that Bob and Nancy will rise again; it's as sure as the sun will come up tomorrow," pastor Eddie Preas said.

A message of hope amidst the heartache, and of a couple who is rejoicing together once again.

An elderly man, who was brutally beaten alongside his wife, has been laid to rest.

Bob Strait and his wife, Nancy Strait, were attacked by intruders to their home in March.

Bob, 90, died last week, about six weeks after his wife of 65 years succumbed to wounds suffered in the beating.