Osage County, Oklahoma, Obituary: WILMA IRENE HARRISON Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joann Brazee Osage County News Service (OCNS) http://ocns.freeyellow.com/ Email: ocns@hotmail.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgwarchives.net/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ WILMA IRENE HARRISON OCNS - January 23, 2001 - Wilma Irene Harrison, 84, long-time resident of Pawhuska, Oklahoma, died peacefully Sunday morning, January 21, in Hillcrest Medical Center in Tulsa. Born Wilma Walkabout near Tahlequah, Oklahoma on September 3, 1916, and moved with her family to Pawhuska when she was three years old and lived there for eight-one years. Wilma attended the Chilocco Indian Boarding School and graduated from Pawhuska High School before attending the University of Oklahoma at Norman. Mrs. Harrison was an active member of the First Baptist Church in Pawhuska where she taught Sunday School for more than thirty years. She retired in 1979 after thirty years of service with the Bureau of Indian Affairs where she broke the glass ceiling for the generation of women behind her, becoming the first woman ever to reach the grade level of GS-11 at the Osage Agency. Wilma's grandfather, Henry Walkabout, Sr., rode with the Cherokee Calvary in the Civil War long before Oklahoma Statehood. As the granddaughter, sister, aunt, mother or grandmother of veterans of every American conflict spanning more than one hundred twenty years, from the Civil War to the Persian Gulf War, she was an active member of the Grayhorse Chapter of the American War Mothers and served as both chaplain and historian of that organization. Following the death in 1981, of her husband of forty-eight years, Ben H. Harrison, Wilma volunteered her service on the foreign mission fields of South Africa for the Southern Baptist Convention where she learned first- hand the evils of apartheid when she found herself assigned to public facilities designated especially for persons neither white nor black. After her return from Africa, Wilma served a tour with the Home Mission Board in the inner city of Detroit, Michigan. Once featured in the Outdoor Oklahoma magazine with a pair of recently bagged prairie chickens, she enjoyed hunting and fishing with her family,, and had camped and found arrowheads along most of the creeks of Osage County. A member of the Pawhuska Country Club, Wilma was an avid golfer and sportswoman well into her seventies, when she began to succumb to the ravages of Alzheimer's Disease. Wilma will be remembered by family and friends as a dedicated Bible teacher, an inspirational spiritual counselor, a cheerful companion and a source of comfort and solace to those in need for most of the last Century. Survivors include four children, Richard of Rockville, Maryland; Henry Ben of Neah Bay, Washington; David of Albuquerque, New Mexico; and Jonathan of Tulsa, Oklahoma; six grandchildren, John M. Harrison, a pilot with United Airlines; Jonathan M. Harrison of Dallas, Texas; Anne Marie Tahkeal of Yakama, Washington; Mikel and Samantha Harrison of Skiatook, Oklahoma, and Christina Harrison of Albuquerque; five great grandchildren; Madison and Morgan Harrison, Loveland, Colorado; Rachel, Bryan and Cassie of McAlester, Oklahoma. She was predeceased by one granddaughter, Rikki Ann Harrison. Wilma will lie in state at the family home in Pawhuska until services at the First Baptist Church in Pawhuska at 10:00 a.m., Wednesday, January 24, 2001. Johnson Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.