Chickasha, OK - A time of viewing and visitation with the family will be held on Saturday, October 4, 2025, from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm at McRay Funeral Home. Following the viewing, Mr. Franklin's wishes were to be cremated. A memorial service will be held on November 15, 2025, at 11:00 am at Bible Baptist Church.

James entered school at Prairie Valley in 1946 and transferred to Seminole, OK in 8th Grade in 1953. He graduated from Seminole High School in 1957. He worked as a roustabout and hauled gasoline for a local jobber. He later went to work for the State of Oklahoma in the surveying department at 19 years of age and worked for them until 1970 when he moved to Chickasha and opened Franklin Surveying Service. His practice included farm land boundary surveys, topography surveys, pipeline routes, subdivision surveys and plats, and mortgage inspections. In 1985, he took a position with Phillips Petroleum in Okmulgee where he had a crew surveying pipeline routes for about five years. In 1990, he changed the name of the business to Pathfinder Resources and worked another thirty years until covid hit in 2020 and forced him to retire. He was not ready to quit but dementia struck and he came out of covid a different man.

On October 5, 1979, he married Sharon Lynn Brinkley known to her family and friends as Sherrie. They had one child in 1980, Danny Ray, and were fortunate to adopt a son in 2007, Hunter James. They were members of First Assembly of God church where James served as an usher and a commander of the boy's group, Royal Rangers. He enjoyed the camp outs and trips with the boys in his group. He was also a member of Light for the Lost where the church made trips to Mexico, Honduras, and various locations in the US to build churches. In 2008, they relocated their church affiliation to Bible Baptist Church where they have been blessed with bible preaching for seventeen wonderful years.

James was a "hot rodder", having several cars that had to be worked on habitually. He had a 1936 Chevy that he worked on a lot. While in the hospital one day he told Sherrie to get him a screwdriver because he was having trouble getting the starter out. He was semi-conscious at that point.

James was preceded in death by his parents Owen and Edith Franklin, and his son Danny Ray Franklin. He is survived by his wife Sherrie Franklin of Chickasha, son Hunter James Franklin of Stillwater, daughter Stephanie Ann Hayes, granddaughter Kaylee Lynn Phillips of Chickasha, granddaughter Sayhler Elizabeth Yandell, sister Patricia Hendricks and husband Jimmy, and a host of nieces and nephews all of whom James loved dearly. His favorite holiday was Thanksgiving and smoking the meat for his family gathered at his table.

Cremation arrangements are with McRay Funeral Home.