Wilton Ed Ricketts

Wilton Ricketts, age 78, of Creede, Colorado passed away in Bandera/Pipe Creek, Texas on Friday, November 21, 2025. He was born in Paris, Texas on March 24, 1947 to Wilton E Ricketts and Maggie Elliott Ricketts and joined a family of 4 older sisters, Lyndel Roper Nash, Barbara Jones Booth, Paula Ricketts Julian and Carol Ricketts Brownlee, all of whom preceded him in death along with his beloved brother in law Charles G Wilson. His father died in 1956. The early death of his father and having 4 sisters greatly impacted his formative years in Paris where he played multiple sports. His mother began a career in Dallas where he attended and graduated from Woodrow Wilson in 1965. He was a standout athlete who was quarterback of the Texas North All Star team under legendary Coach Cotton Miles. He also played basketball, track, tennis and acted in the annual WW school plays, Oklahoma and Our Town. He earned a football scholarship at North Texas State (UNT) where he majored in Kinesiology. After two tours as a Naval RIO (Radio Intercept Officer) in Vietnam, where his F4 was shot down, he spent 4 months recovering in a military hospital before he returned for a second tour. He had a lifelong love of flying including fixed wing, ultralight and experimental aircraft, helicopter, and continued to fly until recently. He earned his commercial pilot license and taught flying, including aerobatics, for many years. He earned undergraduate degrees from UNT, Amberton, and Abilene Christian University. While building pilot hours and waiting to be called to fly commercially after returning from Vietnam, he took a job with the Dallas Police Department in 1970. He stayed for the following 22 years and retired in 1992 as the DPD Commander of Aviation with more than 8,000 hours of helicopter flying time. After DPD retirement he continued with the City of Dallas as a civilian employee and was a manager of the Dallas Heliport. Will also worked as a corporate security manager, and a criminal justice public school teacher.

He married his high school sweetheart Yvonne Malik in 1966 while attending UNT. In 1974, he married Jan Mims, the mother of his adored sons Donny (Rachel Jones) and Jon Thomas (Jennifer von Paris). Following their divorce, he married fellow DPD officer Evelyn Mayfield. In 1992, he married Terri Bean Tisserand and remained married for 33 years until his death. With the marriage he gained son Daniel (Kimberly Dean) and daughter Kara (Marty Martinez). These 4 children and the grandchildren (Tara and Brandon, Reece and Reid, Emma and Maya, and Amelia) were the joy, delight, and pride of his life. Along with their athletic and academic accomplishments, he was especially proud of their kind and generous hearts.

Always an outdoor enthusiast, in addition to building small experimental airplanes, he restored classic cars, sailed, powerboated, scuba dived, ran marathons, pampered his dogs and Terri’s horses, and read books. In 2000, they bought Hollow Hill Farm in Blue Ridge, Texas where he mowed pastures, groomed walking trails, built horse barns, created a grass runway, and built plane hangars. He cherished and loved his years at the farm. A lifelong Texan, in 2021 he started spending most of the year in Creede, Colorado while wintering in his home state of Texas. He was an avid Texas Rangers fan, who often coached from the comfort of his favorite recliner.

Will is survived by his wife, children, grandchildren, Terri’s brother and sister-in-law, Ken and MariKay Bean, Terri’s sister, Jana Wilson, and a family of nieces and nephews.

In honor of his grandchildren, he would request memorials or support of Breakthrough Type 1D (formerly Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation), the Epilepsy Foundation, or autismspeaks.org

Per his request there will be no services.