Dee Ozment: The man behind the name of Crab Orchard High School gym

Steve Dunford – franklincounty-news.com

CRAB ORCHARD, IL – Christopher, Sesser-Vailer and Zeigler- Royalton participated in the Crab Orchard Class 1A Regional this week.  I would like to introduce you to the one the facility is named after, Dee Ozment.

When Williamson county had a sales tax increase for capital improvements to their schools, Crab Orchard built a new high school.  The school was opened during the 2004-05 school year.

After Christopher defeated Steeleville last night, I began to exchange messages with his widowed wife Dianne.  I asked her if it would be too painful to write this story.  She graciously said,  “It is never painful to talk about Dee. He was a fine man and meant so much to so many.”

I have known Dee Ozment in many circles, first as a long time teacher/school administrator at Crab Orchard, who he dedicated 41 years to his Alma Mater.  He was larger than life, had one of the most infectious smiles I ever witnessed.  At the same time, he was a humble servant.

Dianne shared a clipping with me from the Marion Daily Republican the night the gym was dedicated to him.  The story said that he would do anything that needed to be done in the district.  He would help the custodians, and fill in as a bus driver if needed.

My eighth grade year my basketball team was there.   For those who do not know, I went to school at Thompsonville.  If you are familiar with the old gym down there it had concrete sidelines.

It was a mild December day and the sidelines was sweating.   It was in the days of three-piece suits.  Dee was out there with his vest on mopping the sidelines.

I refereed a lot of games at Crab Orchard.  I worked my third or fourth varsity game there.  It was against Thompsonville.  It was a game that was rescheduled after a snow.  Their athletic director Keith Johns (and still the A.D.) said I know it will put you in a spot, but I feel more comfortable with you than anyone.

Trying to be objective, I was giving my hometown a royal rooking.   Dee put his arm around me and said son, thank you for coming.  He said go out and call the second half like it is just any other team in blue.  That will always stick with me.

I took a six-month job working for IDOT after college.  The project was widening Route 13 to four lanes.  I was in Crab Orchard a lot, and I would run into him.  I loved taking to him about high school sports, picking his mind about education, and mostly about the Lord.

During that winter, I would be a substitute teacher there from time to time.  I also was during a time I worked a second shift job in Marion.  He would tell me would loved for me to teach there if they had a position open.   I took that as a very high compliment.

Dee and his wife Dianne spent their weekends spreading the Gospel in churches and fairs across the Midwest.  He was the lead singer of the Glorylanders quartet.  She was the pianist/alto.

The group spanned over five decades, up until the time Dee went home to be with the Lord.   The group had several personnel changes but he was a constant.  I asked Diane to share some thoughts about the group:

“The Gloylanders were group of high school boys started singing around 1959.   Members came and went over the years, and about 54 years later, when Dee went home to be with our Lord, the group was still going strong.  But that time, it consisted of 3 family members and one non-family.”

“He had a deep love for Southern Gospel music that never wavered. His funeral service was a celebration with some of the most glorious music I have ever heard.”

My parents were “groupies” of them back in the 1970’s.  Their signature song was The King is Coming, written by Bill and Gloria Gaither.

When he would sing it he would be in the aisle of the church as far as his mic chord would reach.  The spirit would be so strong as he sang it with such passion.

Dee passed away on March 16, 2013 after a very brief illness.  When he went home to be with his Lord, I thought of a line in “his song” over and over, “praise God he’s coming for me.”

He came for him that day.  Because the Lord saved someone who still is an old rotten sinner, I will see him again one day.

 

Just a few footnotes on some Franklin County connections.  Diane started her teaching career at Thompsonville High School, then taught several years at Crab Orchard before her retirement.

Richard Ozment, their son, taught at Sesser-Valier a few years.  He is now a principal at Hardin County.

The Ozment’s daughter Rindy has been involved in Southern Gospel music all of her life.  She  is in a group with former Sesser-Valier and now Johnston City teacher Andrea Harris, the Clarks. Andrea’s father Gary Clark is the pastor of Oasis Nazarene Church in Harrisburg.  Dee was the minister of minister of music there at his passing.