Obit of Leonard, Mary Evelyn - Oklahoma County, Oklahoma Submitted by: Gene Phillips 18 Nov 2007 Return to Oklahoma County Archives: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ok/oklahoma/oklahoma.html ===================================================================== USGENWEB NOTICE Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm ===================================================================== ::Beaver Cemetery--Beaver OK Leonard, Mary Evelyn Mary Evelyn was born on July 25, 1910, in Meridian, Mississippi to William Edwin Holder and Lena Boykin Holder. She died on May 21, 2003, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Mary Evelyn was one of seven children, all of whom preceded her in death. Other than a boy who died soon after birth, her siblings were: Edith, Wilson, Linfield, Halbert and B.A. (Bill). At an early age she moved with her family to Jackson, Mississippi, where she grew up. In Jackson she was an active member of the Central Presbyterian Church. She was a 1928 graduate of Jacksons Central High School and a 1933 graduate of Centenary College in Shreveport, Louisana. During her student teaching days at Centenary one of her students was the late United States Senator Russell Long. After graduation from Centenary she returned to Jackson where she taught at her former elementary school, Poindexter Grade School. During Christmas vacation in 1935, Dwight, who was a law student at the Cumberland Law School in Lebanon, Tennessee, drove to Jackson, Mississippi, where he met and fell in love with Mary Evelyn. Six months later Mary Evelyn Holder and Dwight Leonard were married at the First Presbyterian Church in Guymon, Oklahoma, on June 28, 1936. She and Dwight had two sons, William Lake and Timothy Dwight. Mary Evelyn and Dwight spent their entire married life living in or near Beaver, Oklahoma, until two years ago when ill health forced them to move to Oklahoma City to be closer to their son, Tim, and his wife, Nancy. Mary Evelyn was a gracious, caring person with a beautiful smile and a soft lilting accent that revealed her Mississippi origins. She supported her husband Dwight devotedly during his life as a lawyer, farmer, rancher and public servant and was a committed homemaker in every sense of the word. She was an excellent cook and loved to entertain; she knew how to sew, embroider, cross- stitch, quilt and knit. She was a loving mother who communicated her high expectations to her children in a firm but gentle manner. Mary Evelyn was loving and gracious to everyone she met. However, love of her family was the primary passion in her life. In the last 38 years of her life, she focused much of that love and devotion on her five grandchildren as their loving Gamani and Grandmama. Outside of the home her creative nature was realized in the graphic arts. She began studying art seriously in the early 1960's with Dord Fitz and continued her studies and painting until the early 1980's. Her oil paintings and watercolors revealed her love of the beauty of the nature she saw around her, whether in the plains of Oklahoma and New Mexico or in the mountains of Colorado. She was preceded in death by her parents, her siblings and joins her husband, Dwight, who died last December. She is survived by: her sons, William Lake Leonard of Philadelphia, PA and Timothy Dwight Leonard and his wife, Nancy, of Oklahoma City, OK; her grandchildren William David Leonard with Judy Dugan of Woodstock, NY, Elizabeth Lake Leonard of Raleigh, NC, Kirstin Leonard Pack and her husband, Sean Pack, of Louisville, CO, Ryan Timothy Leonard and and his wife, Carrie Keating Leonard of Oklahoma City, OK, and Tyler Dwight Leonard and his wife, Courtney Mikell Leonard, Tulsa, OK; and her great-granddaughters, Eva Grace Leonard of Woodstock, NY, Catherine Laughlin Leonard of Oklahoma City, OK and Siena Laughlin Pack of Louisville, CO. Also surviving are three sisters-in-law, Dean Holder and Jean Holder of Jackson, MS and Ruby Lee Holder of Meadville, MS and many other nephews, nieces and cousins. Special thanks to Anna and Selena Good, the nurses of the Beaver Hospital, Franziska Faries, Robin Morgan, Bonita Sellers, Jenni and Virginia Breshears and Karen Sims who all gave loving care to Mary Evelyn during the last few years. Funeral services will be on Thursday, May 29, at 2:00 p.m. at the First Presbyterian Church in Beaver, Oklahoma, and burial in the Beaver Cemetery with Clark Funeral Home officiating. Memorial donations may be made to the First Presbyterian Church, P.O. Box 38, or the Beaver County Memorial Hospital, P.O Box 640, in Beaver, OK 73932. Published in the Oklahoman from 5/27/2003 - 5/28/2003. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Return to Oklahoma County Archives: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ok/oklahoma/oklahoma.html