Ava M. Hoover

A graveside service to celebrate and remember the life of Ava M. Sellmeyer Hoover will be 11:00 a.m. Wednesday, December 10, 2025, at Oakhaven Memorial Gardens in Claremore. Visitation will be at the funeral home on Tuesday from 4-7 with family there to receive visitors. Ava passed away at her home surrounded by her family on Friday, December 5, 2025. She was 69.

Born in Anchorage, Alaska on December 19, 1955, to Lt. Colonel Romayne Edward and Betty Ruth (Drake) Sellmeyer. Ava was raised an Air Force brat and was raised and educated not only in Alaska but Germany and Oklahoma City. Her family finally settled in the Oologah area and Ava graduated high school from Oologah Public Schools with the Class of 1974. On August 4, 1979, in Tulsa, OK, Ava married the love of her life John Hoover. They became a blended family with one daughter, Kara Michelle Hoover. Ava helped contribute to the family finances working as an office manager for the late Dr. Darryl Reed DDS.

A lady that liked to cook and shop. Ava certainly knew her way around the kitchen. She hosted most of the family Thanksgiving and Christmas get-togethers and always prepared enough food to feed an army. Ava was known for her potato salad, cheesy potatoes, and spinach salad and many of her nieces and nephews requested that for any gathering. Ava loved family; she was the favorite aunt of many of her nieces and nephews. She made everything fun and would always shower them with gifts and her undivided attention. When granddaughter Isabel Rose was born Grandma became Ava's favorite name. She had a special relationship with her and to say she was the apple of Ava's eye would be an understatement.

Ava liked big league baseball games and husband John was right there to take her if she wanted to go. She was a movie fanatic and if she wasn't going to the theater, she was renting one to watch at home. Rest assured any movie watching was accompanied with a big coke and popcorn. Anyone that knew Ava knew she was a bit of a spitfire, and she had no trouble in setting you straight. When it came to her brothers, she always told John, growing up they made me feel safe. Ava knew that whatever she did they would be there to protect her. No story about Ava would be complete unless you mentioned her love of cats. Two of her very favorites were Lucy and Rocket. Rocket did receive the nickname though of the "million dollar cat" because that is how much they spent on him over his life in vet bills.

Ava has left a legacy that will live on in the lives of her family and friends. She is survived by her husband of 46 years John Hoover, daughter, Kara Cadue, granddaughter, Isabel Rose Mathews, great granddaughter, Dani rose Mathews, brothers, Rome Sellmeyer and Jon K. Sellmeyer and wife Mary, and numerous nieces, nephews, cousins, and extended family. Ava was preceded in death by her parents, Rome and Betty Sellmeyer, mother and father-in-law, Harlan and Patty Hoover, and sister-in-law, Scarlett Sellmeyer.