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Jean S. Arthur

FUNERAL HOME

Demuth Funeral Home

1145 W. Britton Rd.

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Jean Arthur Obituary

Jean S Arthur, retired mathematics teacher at Putnam City Schools, Hefner Jr High. Born 10/25/1930, Purcell, OK Died 4/9/2005, Englewood, CO. Service Demuth Funeral Home, 1145 W Britton Rd, Oklahoma City, 405-843-5521, May 20, 2005, at 10:00am. Interment at Summit View Cemetery, Guthrie, following service. Donations to Arthritis Foundation will be appreciated in lieu of flowers.

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Published by Oklahoman from May 18 to May 19, 2005.

Memories and Condolences
for Jean Arthur

Sponsored by the family of Jean Arthur.

18 Entries

Pete Floyd

June 1, 2005

My Aunt Jean

I had a lot of fun knowing my aunt Jean. She put up with a lot of silliness between my uncle Bill and I. My mother sent me by train to spend some time with them. I arrived at the train station and they were not there to meet me. I had to walk up hill, which seemed like ten miles to their home. It was really only about three blocks, but you know how it is when it is dark and you are alone. I got there and no one was home, I went in and went to sleep on the couch. They went to a movie and forgot all about me. After that I would not call and tell her I was coming to visit because I though they would leave town if they knew. After that I could have anything thing I wanted and I never let her forget. She was married to one of three men I really wanted to be like. I wanted to be like my Grandfather Arthur, my Uncle Bill and my dad. I would call her and tell her I was with the South Central Republican Party and asking for donations and she would hang up on me. After about three times when I would call, I would always say, don't hang up its Pete. She put up with a bomb shelter dug out under her garage. She put up with beer bottles blowing up in the cellar and cutting Bill’s leg, she put up with me. She was quit a woman and a wonderful aunt. I miss and will always remember her.

Sharon Martin (STEWART)

May 19, 2005

Aunt Jean I Love You So very much, I wish I could have Spent more time with you over the years. When you see My Mother please tell her that I love her.

Love

Sharon

Joy Halstead

May 17, 2005

Dearest: Jean

To a wonderful person, friend, mother, and sister,I'm going miss you very much. I'm very happy we got to spend time together this past summer it reminded me of when we were kids. I love you... Your sister Joy

Dawn Paine

May 17, 2005

Dear Jean,

To a wonderful lady for a short time I knew, her love and effection was endless and true. Her puppy and family were her greatest love, and now she's watching them from high up above. For now she's in heaven, that's where she'll reside, now and forever she will remain by your side. You will never be forgotten, for this is true our love is endless from us to you...

Susan Lampson

May 16, 2005

Aunt Jean,

You and Uncle Bill were always my favorite Aunt and Uncle. I miss you both so much. You will always remain in my heart. Love you Susan and Family

Twyla Arthur

April 30, 2005

I loved Bill and Jean and always considered them family even though time and life took us apart. They were one of the closest couples I have known and always wondered how either of them would survive without the other. Besides being loving and generous, they were always very accepting and non-judgemental of others. Even though I hadn't seen either of them for some time, I miss them. My heartfelt sympathy to family and friends of Jean for their recent loss. They both touched many lives with their gentle lives.

Love to all the family,

Twyla Arthur

Dee Jamieson

April 24, 2005

I met Jean alittle over a year ago through my co-worker, Barb. I feel blessed to have met the Mom of Barb and finally realize where Barb got so many of her traits and stories. Jean came to our Re-Hab Unit to have phyical therapy after her knee replacement. What a sense of humor she had even if she wasn't feeling the best. Then there was the times she volunteered at the facility for bingo or art and crafts.

She loved her little doggie, Posie and Posie loved her.

But mostly she loved her family and her precious Meredith--never heard of Marnie before the Parry's.

But probably her most, special love was Bill. I never met her husband but learned through the years how special he was too. And I know that God has a special place for them and as the song goes--one more dance for my Mother-- For I know that the dance is just beginning and will now go on forever.

Good bye dear Mother of my friend.

Doris Bergman

April 23, 2005

Jean was a good Mother in law, friend and teacher to me. I hope she will always be remembered for the lives she shaped in the home and the classroom. She was a guiding influence, happy to lend her life experience and education about babies and pre calculus when I needed.

I loved her, and will miss her.

Wendy Beverstock

April 21, 2005

Aunt Jean was a favorite aunt whom I have had a special admiration for ever since I "dubbed" her the most beautiful girl on the block!

I enjoyed the special time spent with her, she always made time for me. I shall miss her dearly.

Wendy Beverstock

Azra Koblischke

April 20, 2005

As Activities Director I have come to know you thru your daughter &

visiting you daily. You always brightened my day with a clever saying & bright smile. You have left an indelible mark on everyones life you have touched. You will never be forgotten. May God Bless

Jim Stewart

April 19, 2005

I am so sorry to hear about Aunt Jean, I remember her visiting my mother Irean. Last time I saw Aunt Jean and Uncle Bill was at my moms funeral in March of 1993. What a sweetheart she was. We will miss her very much.

Cliff Clark

April 18, 2005

I knew Jean for over 40 years, first as my friend Allen's mother, then as my ninth grade "student" teacher and most importantly as my friend. It would be difficult for me to tally the hours that I spent in Jean and Bill's company over the years listening to their counsel and stories. They provided a liberal view of the world that I was able to incoporate into my own belief system. Jean specifically provided me with a role model for education and teaching. As I complete my thirty-second year as a professional educator, I owe a lot of that to the inspiration Jean passed to me through her conversations and actions over the years. I am glad that I was able to stay connected to Jean throughout the decades and consider myself a richer person for having had the good sense to do so. I will miss Jean tremendously and do already.

With love and admiration,

Your friend,

Cliff

Carl Mallonee

April 16, 2005

So sorry but so glad she is in the Lords hand's now. We sure missed her at our OLAN (NARVRE) meeting in Bethany. We loved them both Bill and Jean.

Ocean Sehlmeyer

April 15, 2005

Dear Marney,

I miss you every day. Thank you for being such a wonderful grandmother. Say hello to Grandad for us.

Love,

Oci

barb parry

April 15, 2005

TO MOM

This will be short and sweet because my family already knows everything I could possibly say and my fabulous co-workers (my Cherry Park family) have heard about my childhood for 8 years now. I thought I would just speak off the cuff and not have anything prepared but decided I better have something that someone else can read for me in the event I’m not able to do this.

My mother must have been put on this earth to provide a loving atmosphere for her husband and kids. She excelled at this assignment. Allen and I were raised in a magical home with an atmosphere that puts Leave It to Beaver to shame. Every meal was home-cooked, every birthday cake was of her own design (one year my cake was a ball and jacks), our hardwood floors were always clean and shiny, and every time we took our naps she polished our shoes. Allen and I spent every evening sitting on our parent’s laps rocking either watching TV or being read to. If we were watching TV we switched laps on the commercial. We got to stay up late on the night Red Skelton was on. We were rocked until Allen’s legs grew so long they went over the arm of the rocker and his feet hit the floor. He must have been in Jr. High. I could go on and on about what a wonderful, vibrant, involved mother she was.

I was afraid of the dark so I slept on my parents’ floor until I moved away from home after HS. That was so comforting I let my own kids do the same when they got scared. Nothing feels safer.

I don’t think I have to mention my grades; you all know that story already.

When Mom was in the hospital last week she told us she just wanted to go find Dad. She got her wish and she did it her way.

Once, not too long ago, I was talking to her about how I got so many of my traits from Dad. She said, “I hope you got some of my traits.” I told you then and I’m telling you now, Mom. From you I learned how to be a wife and a mother. Those were the greatest traits any mother can pass on. You were my inspiration, the wind beneath my wings. I was compelled to go to nursing school when Ocean was in the 4th grade just like Mom went to college when I was in the 4th grade. She touched and changed so many young lives through her teaching ability. I’m so proud of that. She won Teacher of the Year in the early 90’s.

She kept her sense of humor up to her last conscious moments.

God, I miss her so much.

Allow me to talk about my co-workers. You guys were amazing! Your love, compassion and caring was unsurpassed. I’ve never seen anything like it and I’m so proud to be part of such a wonderful, giving family. I wish my dad had had the privilege of being at Cherry Park when it was time for him to go.

I love you all.

allen arthur

April 15, 2005

My mother told me on Thursday night not to cry, so I am going to try and get through this honoring her request. She said goodbye to me several times over the last thirty or forty years and she always maintained her dignity. I will try to do the same. If I cannot do it, maybe someone else can pick up the ball and finish my part of this service.

It is gratifying to see this kind of outpouring…we have three generations of blood relatives, extended family, friends, whom we consider family, and we have this magnificent Cherry Park staff.

I knew that you all knew my mother, and that you work with Barb, but I did not realize the kind of magic that must have taken place here over the last year or sixteen months. Jean must have become something very special to many of you, because the support and the true emotional bonding that I witnessed a few days ago can only be explained by a loving and mutually respectful relationship between many of you and her.

As you all know, my mother was quick witted and not bashful about saying what was on her mind; and she had a very low tolerance for arrogance, ignorance, or cruelty. Here at Cherry Park, this last time and before, she must have witnessed and felt the kind of patient/caregiver relationship that we all hope for when we are confronted with this kind of need. All she saw and felt was love and concern and the best care anyone could hope for.

Since many of you only knew her for a year and a little more, I thought I would tell you a little bit about her.

She was born Wilma Jean Stevens in Purcell, Oklahoma, in 1930. Purcell was a hard-scrabble little working town, one of the first watering holes south of Oklahoma City for the Santa Fe steam engines that pulled freight and passenger trains from Chicago, Illinois to Ft Worth, Texas. She always said her maternal grandmother was a Chickasaw princess who married a German immigrant, a newspaper editor in Arkansas, before settling in Purcell. Her father’s people were cut from a different fabric, and we do not know much about that side of the family. She had ten brothers and sisters, she was number eleven, the youngest. Her father was absent after she turned five and the family had a difficult time in depression era Oklahoma. They did not even have the money to pack it up and move to California. She said she wore flour sack dresses and went to school barefoot when the weather was good. The flour from those sacks was used by that little grade school girl to make biscuits while her mother made gravy, and that was the family staple for many years. As she grew older, she wore hand me downs from older sisters and began working in one of the local cafes where the Santa Fe railroaders often ate lunch.

One of those young railroaders showed an interest in 1947. He was still getting over his time in Europe during the war, and he felt something for this young woman. They started dating and he bought her the first new jacket she had ever worn. They fell in love. She was seventeen and he was twenty-two, when one day one of his railroad friends walked into her high school typing class and said that Bill wanted to see her, it was important. She was concerned, so she left the class and went outside where he was waiting in his car. Her mother was in the car, too, and he asked her to marry him. He did not have to ask twice. Her mother had already agreed, so they drove to Gainesville, Texas, and took the vows. Two years later, I was born and two years after that along came Barb.

We had an idyllic childhood, with Jean in the kitchen, making the best southern fried chicken and okra and cakes and pies, and tending to our every need. Dad did what he did best, worked on the railroad and came home and showered us all with love and security every day. But he was smart. The world was changing, his kids were getting older and he knew he could not do what he wanted to do for his family on a railroader’s wages, so he convinced his now twenty-nine year old wife to go to college so she could get a job. Once again, he did not have to ask twice. She went and passed the GED for high school equivalency and enrolled at Central State College in Edmond, Oklahoma, where she attended classes, commuting forty-five minutes each way for four years. She graduated Cum Laude with a major in Mathematics and a minor in Education.

In 1964, she started teaching in the school system in Oklahoma City where Barb and I were students, and the rest is history. She taught algebra to winners of state competitions, chaired the Math department and was respected and loved by all for thirty years. Many past students have seen her accidentally or contacted her purposely and told her what a positive impact she had on their lives.

She let Barb and I grow up and move away and she and my dad supported each other over the years until he died in 2003. Now she is with him, as she wanted. She had a wonderful time here in Colorado over the last sixteen months, getting all the support possible from Barb and her great husband, spending time with her grandchildren and glorifying in her great-grandchildren.

I know that she is happy and grateful to all of you here at Cherry Park for making her last hours as comfortable and pain free as possible.

Thank you, all.

John and Ollie Dodd

April 13, 2005

John worked with Bill on the Santa Fe. We both worked with Bill and Jean when John accepted the UTU Treasurer job. We loved and appreciated them very much. God bless you in the days ahead.

Barb Parry

April 13, 2005

Mom, you have no idea how much you're loved and missed. I have a huge hole in my heart. The only thing that comforts me is that you are with Dad now and I just know the two of you are dancing and laughing and enjoying being in each other's arms again.

I love you,

Barb

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