Mary L. Penland
Help us celebrate Mary! Please share your stories and photos, and invite others who remember Mary.
Funeral service for Mary L. Penland will be 2:00 p.m. Saturday, July 31, 2021 in Becker-Rabon Funeral Home Chapel with Rev. Steve Mallow officiating. Burial will follow in Sunset Memorial Gardens. The family will greet friends from 6-8 pm Friday at the funeral home.
Mary L. Penland died Monday, July 26, 2021 at her residence in Geronimo, Oklahoma at the age of 85. She was born in Alma, Arkansas on December 26, 1935. She grew up in Kibler, Arkansas and attended school there. She met Jack F. Penland in VanBuren, Arkansas and the couple married on January 11, 1952 in Fort Smith, Arkansas. He preceded her in death on February 10, 2010.
Following her marriage, she moved to Lawton and, although she was primarily a homemaker, she helped her husband in the family business, Penland Topsoil. Mary loved being able to care for her family and frequently provided care for her grandchildren so they wouldn't have to go to daycare. She also enjoyed sewing clothes, cooking, painting and crafting but really enjoyed fishing, something she did often with her husband and grandchildren.
Mary was very involved in the Geronimo community. She was instrumental in the placement of the Blue Jay sculpture at the high school and the Geronimo Community Center for which she and Jack hosted a fish fry to install the ventilation system. Mary was also involved in many fund raisers for the Geronimo Fire Department and prior to the 911 system being activated, served as dispatcher for the department from her home.
She is survived by her son and daughter-in-law, Tommy and Donna Penland; daughter and son-in-law, Sharon and Dennis Osburn; grandchildren and their spouses, Misty and Carlos Rains, Amy and Chesley Warren, Chad and Sarah Osburn, Thomas Penland and fianc? April Langford, Gabriel and Tamara Maldonado, Clayton and Cassandra Maldonado, Adam and Erlinda Maldonado and Cody and Stephanie Hilliary; great grandchildren, Elisha and Kaylee Rains, Mason, Jack, Emilee and Ellie-Kate Warren, Brooklynn and Brantley Osburn and Brody and Lennox Penland, Adam, Manuel, Christopher, Sergio and Annalisa Maldonado, Kenny, Emily and Nolan Hilliary, Cameron, Madison and Allison Maldonado; a brother, Joe Gregory and wife Linda; and many nieces and nephews.
She was preceded in death by her father, Jess Andrews, her mother and stepfather, Olivet and John Gregory, brothers, Larry Jess, John Ben, Louie, Loren, Leonard, Lester and Bobby and sisters, Phyllis, Debbie and Vera.
An online guest book and sympathy cards are available at www.beckerfuneral.com