Merrilyn Gail Giles Lewellen
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Merrilyn Gail Giles Lewellen, mother and grandmother of Fort Worth, Texas, passed away Thursday, December 9, 2021 in Celina, Texas. She was 84 years old. A graveside service will be held at 1:00 p.m., Saturday, December 18, 2021, at Resurrection Memorial Cemetery Chapel in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The family will receive friends during a visitation from 5:00 - 7:00 p.m., Thursday, December 16, 2021, at Turrentine-Jackson-Morrow Funeral Home, 8520 Main St., Frisco, Texas, 75033. Gail was born March 31, 1937, in Sulphur, Oklahoma, the only child of Mildred Merrill Giles and Thomas Murray Giles. After graduating from Sulphur High School in 1955, she attended Oklahoma City University, was a member of Delta Zeta Sorority, and later worked at Cities Service Gas Company. Gail married Jim Lewellen on January 14, 1961 at St. Luke's Methodist Church in Oklahoma City, where they met in Sunday School in 1960. They moved to Fort Worth in 1967. Gail was a stay at home mom who enjoyed being a Cub Scout Den Mom and driving for Meals on Wheels. In 1973, she volunteered to help a friend and would up working nine interesting years for a local philanthropist. Gail was a survivor of breast cancer for 38 years. Her passion was her family, old Platt National Park, which she felt was "going home", and genealogy. She always said "To have a large family I had to grow it backwards"; she was a founding member of the National Society of Descendants of Lady Godiva. She was a lifelong member of the Methodist Church having belonged to First United Methodist Church of Ft. Worth and United Methodist Women. Also, a member of Harris Hospital Auxiliary and thirteen ancestral societies (example: Daughters of Founders and Patriots of America through both her Giles and Merrill lineages). Gail wrote and published her family history book and was thrilled when it was accepted into the Library of Congress. Gail was preceded in death by her parents and her husband of 58 years, James "Jim" B. Lewellen. She is survived by her son, Robert "Bobby" Giles Lewellen, daughter-in-law, Shavonne Louise Ashley Lewellen; grandson, Brandon Thomas Lewellen; granddaughters, Lauren Ashley Lewellen and Katelyn Elizabeth Lewellen; a few cousins; and very dear friends she considered family. To convey condolences or to sign an online registry, please visit tjmfuneral.com.