Shannon Lee Archer

Shannon Lee Archer, of Oklahoma City, passed away peacefully in her home on July 11, 2025, surrounded by her loving family and incredible caretakers, Ashley and Kate. Shannon was welcoming and kind, quick with a smile, and deeply empathetic. She gave of herself freely, whether to her friends and family, the patients she served as a nurse, strangers in need of assistance, or her beloved dachshunds. An accomplished cook, Shannon's meals were legendary-almost as legendary as her karaoke singing. After she was done feeding you, there was no doubt she would break out her karaoke machine, which she faithfully brought to every family function.
Born in Houston, Texas on October 8, 1956, Shannon moved to Oklahoma City when she was two months old and was a proud, lifelong Oklahoman. She was a Brownie and Girl Scout and later was a cheerleader at Putnam Central Middle School and Putnam City West High School, graduating in 1974. Always an animal lover, Shannon initially wanted to be a marine biologist when she began her studies at the University of Oklahoma. But, inspired by her mother, Lena Flynn and her grandmother, Kathryn Flynn, she decided to study nursing instead and began what would be a lifetime of work in healthcare.
Shannon was a caretaker to her core, serving in multiple nursing roles during her career, including in the behavioral health unit for 18 out of her almost 40 years as a nurse. She spent many years as a nurse at Deaconess Hospital, where she met her second husband, Stephen, and later served in leadership roles overseeing hospital safety and quality improvement. She ended her career working with her daughter, Kelly, in the state's Medicaid program, serving a population that Kelly learned to care deeply about through her mother's compassion and lifelong example of caring for those who need it most.
Always a free spirit, Shannon was both hard-working and effortlessly cool-opening Oklahoma's first futon store, "Cloud 9 Futon," with her first husband, Farris, while still working her full-time nursing shifts and raising their children. She loved being outside, once hitchhiking from Oklahoma to Yellowstone, Badlands, and Grand Tetons national parks and ending up in San Francisco after climbing the famed Devils Tower along the way. That love of traveling and the outdoors never left her, and she made frequent trips to Hawaii and Estes Park, CO, with her husband of 25 years, Stephen, and their family. She never stopped appreciating the beauty in the world around her and used her creative talents to capture some of that beauty in the watercolor paintings that she was known for.
For all the light she brought to others, the brightest light in her life was always her children. Seeing them never failed to bring her joy. She showed her children what unconditional love looked and felt like, and they always knew just how proud she was of them.
Shannon was preceded in death by her mother, Lena Flynn; father, Bernard Michael Flynn; brother, Joe Flynn; and first husband, Farris Willingham. She is survived by her husband, Stephen Archer; children, Tegan, Kelly, Farris, Stormy (Sophia), and Sage; brother, Michael (Karina); sister, Melanie (Jay); sister-in-law, Nancy; nieces, Jennifer, Angela, Christina, Bonnie, and Eva; nephew, David; and grandson, Issac.
Memorial services will be held at 10 a.m. on July 26 at Mercer-Adams Funeral Service Chapel, 3925 N. Asbury Ave., Bethany, OK.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that memorial contributions be made to the Oklahoma Humane Society.