Osage County, Oklahoma, Obituary: Olive Pope Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: The Hominy News - Progress P.O. Box 38, Hominy, Okla 74035 Transcribed by Sharon Hamilton: sharkay@cccexpress.com Return to Osage County Archives: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ok/osage/osage.htm ===================================================================== USGENWEB NOTICE Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm ===================================================================== ::Osage Gardens Cemetery--Skiatook OK The Hominy News - Progress Vol. 34, No. 9 Wednesday, February 27, 2002 Page 1 Olive Pope Hominy's Oldest Citizens Dies at 101 By Kathryn Ramsay Olive Pope, one of Hominy's oldest citizens, died on Friday, February 22. She was 101 years old. Olive was born on December 9, 1900, near Wakita in Oklahoma Territory. Her parents, John S. and Diantha Isabelle Niekirk Strasbaugh made the land run into the newly opened Oklahoma Territory. They built a sod house and farmed their claim, raisi and her six brothers and three sisters to be hardworking and busy people. Olive finished high school in Wakita, then around the time of the first World War, came to the Hominy area to join her parents, who had moved to a farm at Wooster's Mound. On August 7, 1920, Olive married Theodore F. Pope. The Pope's raised their family of three children in the Mound Valley area. Theodore worked in the oil field as a pipe liner for 25 years. During World War II, Olive's children were grown and she liked to be busy, so she went to work at J. C. Penney's on Main Street in Hominy. She stayed with Penney's until the store burned. She was then persuaded to go to work at Bayouth's Department Store which opened at the Penney's location. She spent 44 years working on Main Street at the same spot. Well-known for her excellent service, she was voted Hominy's most popular sales clerk. Olive was an excellent cook and a famous seamstress, doing alterations for the store and making her own clothes. She and her husband Theodore always had a garden, an interest she continued after his death. Olive loved her church. She was a member of the First Christian Church in Hominy for many years. Olive was preceded in death by her parents, her husband, her son Henry, six brothers and three sisters. She is survived by her daughter Martha Hendricks of Houston, Texas, her son Dick Pope of Hominy, a daughter-in- law Lucille Pope of Skiatook, 6 grandchildren, 4 great-grandchildren and numerous nieces, nephews, and cousins and a host of friends. Funeral services were held on Monday, February 25, 2002 at 2 p.m. at the Powell Funeral Home Chapel with the Rev. Phil Snider officiating. Interment was at Osage Gardens in Skiatook. Serving as pallbearers were Lafe Burnett, Wayne Ingersoll, Tex Bayouth, and Emile Bayouth. Honorary pallbearer was Ernie Fairweather. Her family wrote in her obituary: "Olive was a remarkable person with a will only the Lord was able to break. She was admired and respected and loved by many people." I interviewed Olive Pope on the occasion of her one hundredth birthday in December of 2000. In the Hominy News - Progress article which followed that interview, I named things that could have contributed to her long life: good heredity and a busy life full of work. The article continued, "After spending some time with Mrs. Pope the other afternoon, I think, in her case at least, there is an added factor besides a busy life and good genes: a love for people and a constant interest in their lives. "Connections among people are the life and breath and steady heartbeat of a small town. Olive Pope has spent the better part of one hundred years enjoying her connections with Hominy's people." Olive Pope was always interested in us. We loved her for it. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Return to Osage County Archives: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ok/osage/osage.htm