Oweida Smiley

Funeral for Oweida Smiley, 90, Lawton, will be at 10 a.m. Monday, Sept. 30, 2019, at Cameron Baptist Church with the Rev. Mike Teel, pastor, officiating.

Mrs. Smiley died Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2019, in Lawton.

Burial will be at Sunset Memorial Gardens under direction of Lawton Ritter Gray Funeral Home.

She was born Sept. 20, 1929, in Grady County to George Washington and Moseller Burch. She was 10th of 11 children. She won three spelling bees when she was in elementary school and graduated from Sterling High School. She moved to Lawton with her two sisters, Hazel and Edna, and was employed by Southwestern Hospital and then was an operator for Southwestern Bell. She was employed as a switchboard operator, manager of the classified ad department and was a teletype setter for The Lawton Constitution from 1961 to 1994 when hot type was still in use. She retired when computers were being phased into the production side of the newspaper. After retirement she traveled to see her children. She had been a member of Cameron Baptist Church since the 1950s. She taught a sixth-grade girls’ Sunday School class and then after retirement worked in the preschool department with her daughter-in-law, Brenda. She was involved in the church’s shut-in program.

She is survived by three children and their spouses: two sons and daughters-in-law: Walter and Sandra Smiley, Tecumseh and  Roger and Brenda Smiley, Lawton, a daughter and son-in-law, Ginger and Randy Murphy, Lawton; seven grandchildren and their spouses: Jennifer and Michael Graziano, Christina Smiley, Angela and D.J. Ryals, Amanda and Nick Cunningham, Brandon Smiley, Aaron and Natalie Murphy, Mary and Brandon Hiller; 12 great-grandchildren: Dominic, Joey, Ryan, Emma, Andrew, Garrett, Mason, Kade, Konnor, Kellan, Gabriel, and Mason; two brothers and their spouses, Bob and Roberta Burch and Don and Marie Burch; and numerous nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by her parents, her brothers: Fred, Ned, Roy, Dewey, Ivan; sisters: Ruby Welborn, Hazel Dunbar and Edna Morrow; and a great-grandchild.

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