Family Of Tulsa Couple Beaten In Home Invasion: 'They'd Do Anything For Anyone'

Friday, March 16th 2012, 6:24 pm

By: News On 6

Family members talked to News On 6 crime reporter Lori Fullbright about Bob and Nancy Strait, the elderly couple beaten in their home Wednesday during a robbery.

03/14/2012 Related Story: Elderly Couple Found Badly Beaten In North Tulsa Home



The couple had been married more than 65 years, had six children and 18 grandchildren. They were great, great, great grandparents.

They had been sick for the past week from food poisoning and the flu. They had just agreed to move into an assisted living facility the day before they were attacked so viciously. Nancy died from her injuries, Bob is still in the hospital.

Bob Strait was a paratrooper in World War II. He was with the 101st airborne where he was part of the D-day invasion. He was awarded the Bronze Star.

Nancy grew up in a log cabin in Kenwood, Oklahoma with no running water. She moved to Tulsa to work during the war.

The two met after the war ended.

"They met and three weeks later got married. Friday the 13th in 1946. They've been married 65 years and three months," said daughter Andra.

Nancy was a homemaker who made quilts and homemade jellies. Bob was a welder by trade and did woodworking for a hobby. The two did everything together; grocery shopping, doctor's visits, you name it.

"Mama was the kind, if you came in, she would say ‘go to the kitchen and help yourself with the groceries or let me get you something.' She fed everybody," Andra said.

"[Bob] is the kind of guy, your car breaks down on the highway, he could fix it. He'd stop and fix your car," said the Straits' son, Bob.

They would do anything for anyone, which makes it so hard to understand why the men who kicked in their back door beat them so viciously just to take their TV, $200 and a bb gun. Nancy didn't make it. Bob has a broken jaw, cracked ribs and a bb lodged in his face. They were already frail and in bad health.

"That's why this was so senseless, 97 pounds and a little over 100 pounds, weak from food poisoning and flu. They would've done anything," Lanora, daughter.

Tyrone Woodfork, 19, is in custody. He lived just four houses from the Straits. He was on a suspended sentence for a 2010 burglary conviction. Police say they are looking for four or five more suspects.

03/15/2012 Related Story: Female Victim In Home Invasion Dies At Tulsa Hospital; Police Name Suspect

As for the Straits' children, their focus is on the love their parents shared and on helping their father cope.

"That's all dad could say when he heard mom passed, ‘I loved that woman, that old woman, for so long, I've loved that old woman,'" Lanora said.

The family wants to thank everyone for their good wishes and urges anyone who knows who the other suspects are to turn them in.

That can be done through crime Stoppers: 918-596-COPS.