CAROLYNNE BLANKENSHIP

November 10, 1938 - September 1, 2014 ENID, OK Funeral services for Carolynne Morey Blankenship, 75, of Enid, will be held at 11:00 AM on Friday, September 5, 2014, at Central Christian Church in Enid. Reverend John McLemore will officiate. Burial will be at Memorial Park Cemetery. Services are under the direction of Brown-Cummings Funeral Home. Carolynne was born November 10, 1938 in Mulberry Grove, Illinois and died September 1, 2014 in Enid after a short illness. She spent her early years in Frederick, OK, and she graduated from Frederick High School in 1957. She loved to tell stories of her time growing up in and around Frederick. Many of the tales she told revolved around some piece of hard-earned practical wisdom imparted by her Grandmother or Grandpa Laing. Others were stories of her beloved parents. Best known of all - at least to those of us who knew and loved her - was her deep reserve of humorous stories about her own foibles and misadventures. She told each story in a spirit of self-deprecation, but her story-telling was really her small way of handing down the wisdom she had gained in the living of her life: the importance of grit and toughness, and the paramount value of absolute honesty. That made it worth hearing those stories more than once. Carolynne attended the University of Oklahoma and was married to Jerry Ben Blankenship on August 15, 1958 in Frederick. She worked hard to help support him and the family through Jerry's long medical training. They moved to Enid in 1967, and they raised their three sons in a home they built in 1970 and lived in to the present.Carolynne was an accomplished tennis player, continuing to play at a high level even in her later years. She won many mixed doubles and ladies doubles championships at Oakwood Country Club; she was always quick to credit her partners. She was serious about tennis, but she had fun, and her sense of humor helped make it fun for others.She loved dogs, and she had a special friend in her last dog, a Border Collie named Lucy, whom she trained to do numerous tricks with a Frisbee and a basketball. She and Lucy even once made the front page of the Enid News and Eagle.Carolynne was a life-long fan of the Oklahoma Sooners, travelling countless times to Norman for home games and to Dallas for OU-Texas games. In recent years she also became a big fan of the Oklahoma City Thunder. She was a long-time member of PEO Chapter FA, and she especially enjoyed performing in humorous skits for the chapter meetings. Carolynne loved to make people laugh. She was a master of the creative use of similes and other descriptive expressions. To Carolynne, no one was ever simply "fast"; rather, he would be "faster than a greased pig." Her wit and straightforward observations were quick and spontaneous. She remained completely devoted - perhaps sometimes to a fault - to the happiness and wellbeing of her family, especially her sons. She loved attending the sporting events and other activities of her grandchildren, who affectionately called her "Gram." Carolynne loved to sing and dance to the music of Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, and other country and rock and roll artists of her youth. At any opportunity, and especially when her son Ben's bands played in the area, she and Jerry could put on a show dancing. Never was Jerry and Carolynne's devotion to one another more evident than when they took to the dance floor at their 50th Wedding Anniversary party. She is preceded in death by her parents, Robert and Julia Morey. She is survived by her husband Jerry, son Jon and his wife Kim of Enid, son Ben of Nashville, son Matt and his wife Jennifer of Tulsa, brothers Mark, Stan, and Brent Morey and their respective wives Jackie, Susan, and Debbie, nine grandchildren, one great grandchild, and several cousins, nephews, and nieces. She dearly loved all those she left behind, including a host of friends. Memorial contributions may be made to Central Christian Church, the YWCA, Enid, or the YMCA, Enid with Brown-Cummings Funeral Home serving as custodian of the funds. Condolences may be made online at Brown-Cummings.com brown-cummings.com