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September 14, 2009

Tower fall kills Wagoner worker

By Liz McMahan

WAGONER — A Wagoner man who loved his work, cowboy life and little children died Monday morning as he fell from a cell phone tower near Alton, Mo.

Justin Stamps, 26, was “moving up” on the tower when he fell more than 300 feet to his death, his mother, Tina Stamps, said.

“They were finished where they were working and getting ready to move up the tower,” Stamps said she was told by an S&S; Communications Specialist official. “He went to hook up, and he missed.”

Stamps loved his job and had worked for S&S; of Hulbert for a little more than a year, she said. Prior to that, he worked for a tower firm from Muskogee.

Besides his job, Stamps loved bull riding and anything western, but most of all he loved people, his friends and family said.

That love of people was evidenced Monday as dozens of cars and pickups lined the long driveway to the home of his parents, Randy and Tina Stamps. Another dozen cars that couldn’t get into the driveway lined the county road in front of the house.

Inside, stunned friends and family recalled how much he had meant.

“He was always a happy guy, he always had a really good heart,” said Tammy Gilbert.

Chuck Bunch said Stamps was the kind of friend that would give you the last quarter out of his pocket if you needed it.

“If I had called him from Texas and told him I had a flat tire and needed help changing it, he would have been in the truck to come help me,” Bunch said.

Tina Stamps said her son especially loved two nephews, Danny, 4, and Steven, 2.

She remembered coming home from an Oklahoma City livestock show once to find he had helped Danny set up a tent in the living room of their home.

Funeral services for Stamps are pending with Hersman-Nichols Funeral Home of Wagoner.

Reach Liz McMahan at 684-2926 or lmcmahan @muskogeephoenix.com.

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