Slain parents working toward better life, friends say

STILLWATER, Okla. (AP) -- Brian and Artie Cullen were trying to provide their family with a better life.<br><br>Both had enrolled in college at Oklahoma State University and had hoped to graduate with

Thursday, April 22nd 2004, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

STILLWATER, Okla. (AP) -- Brian and Artie Cullen were trying to provide their family with a better life.

Both had enrolled in college at Oklahoma State University and had hoped to graduate with degrees that would help them earn more money for their growing family that included five children and several horses and dogs.

Both were killed Monday morning while waiting to make a turn onto a road near their rented acreage outside Stillwater.

The family's car was clipped by a van driven by former U.S. Rep. Wes Watkins. The Cullens' car was hit by a tractor-trailer and then another car.

Payne County District Attorney Rob Hudson expects charges of negligent homicide to be filed against Watkins. No charges had been filed Wednesday.

Now family members are coming together to help raise the couple's three daughters, ages 3, 4, and 8 and two nephews, ages 8 and 13, who were living with the Cullens.

"They were good, loving parents," said James Murray, a friend and Stillwater attorney handling the family's affairs. "They were trying, just like everyone else, just to get through life, to live a good life."

Murray said family members didn't want to talk to the press.

The Cullens moved to Stillwater from Le Flore County last August to get their college degrees, said Randy Lewis, bishop of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints the couple attended in Stillwater.

Lewis, an OSU chemical engineering professor, said Ardith Cullen, 34, "Artie" to friends, had attended college in southeastern Oklahoma for a couple of years, where she also held a job in a laboratory.

She was excited about completing a degree in the animal science field, he said.

"She expressed to me numerous times how she wanted to get an education that would really help her family financially in the future."

Brian Cullen, 32, had quit his last job to enter college, Lewis said.

Both were full-time students getting by mostly on student loans, rent from a home they owned in Le Flore County and possibly some assistance for Brian's disability, Lewis said.

They had three daughters, Ashlee, 8; Megan, 4; and Lindsey, 3. Megan and Lindsey were in the car when it crashed, but were not seriously injured. The couple also was raising Artie Cullen's nephews, Michael Dalton, 13, and Peter Saygnaphay, 8, who are brothers.

Artie Cullen "just loved to go spend time with the horses," Lewis said. Brian Cullen liked to share his passion for the outdoors with the children, taking them hunting and fishing.

Services for the couple will be at Saturday at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Alma, Ark. Burial will be at Oak Bower Cemetery near Mulberry, Ark.