Rebecca Smith Obituary

Rebecca Ruth Smith
February 7, 1929 – February 11, 2025
Rebecca Smith loved to dance and was a regular at Czech Hall in Yukon, OK. She had a genuine laugh that others loved. Active and vibrant, she took ballet and swimming lessons in her 20s. Later, she made ceramics and loved riding Chief, her beautiful paint horse. She kept her house white-glove clean and always had an orchid or terrarium.
She was a talented seamstress who made the elegant linen dresses she wore to her Civil Service job at Tinker Air Force Base. From there, she took a position at the FAA and worked at Will Rogers International Airport in Oklahoma City before transferring to Fort Worth, a move made more memorable by a tornado that picked up her mobile home with her inside and dropped it on top of her car. Her next relocation was to Aurora, CO where she worked for the FAA at Denver's Stapleton International Airport. She retired in 1983 and moved back to Moorewood, OK where she was born.
Rebecca was a foodie before the word was invented. She preferred seafood and enjoyed good food of all kinds. Babysitting niece Mary almost always involved new and favorite restaurants. In later years, when Mary took annual trips to Colorado to visit her beloved Aunt, they would drive into the mountains to try restaurants with fresh-caught trout and other specialties. For Mary, Rebecca was a mother-figure who taught her manners and how to dress. Rebecca also provided counsel, guidance and moral support.
Sister Maisie with her two young daughters, Waletta and Dawn, lived with Rebecca for a few months during the Oklahoma City years. Rebecca was a loving, caring and patient babysitter who adored little Waletta and toddler Dawn. As they grew older, Waletta loved the "fancy" clothes and high heels Rebecca wore when she visited the family home west of Moorewood. Dawn learned life lessons as her aunt taught by example. Among them, never run over a turtle. Stop and move it out of the road instead.
When Rebecca moved on to her land at Moorewood, she and Waletta renewed their closeness. Waletta was there to help during her older years, packing and moving her from Clinton to assisted living in Elk City and, after the isolation of Covid took its toll, into Memory Care and finally, skilled nursing. It was Waletta she depended on in her last days as Rebecca, with her mischievous grin, asked the hospice nurse, "Who made her boss?"
Disciplined and strong in her convictions, Rebecca could be intimidating. She was an avid reader, combing newspapers front-to-back and giving clippings to family and friends. She accumulated a library of spiritual and health-related books, frequently buying additional copies to share. She was spiritual throughout her life, attending church as long as she was able and preparing for the Second Coming.
She graduated from Hammon High School and earned an Associate's Degree from what was then Northwestern State College in Alva, OK. After the love of her life, a pilot, was shot down during the Korean War, she never married.
The eldest of four children, Rebecca was born near Moorewood, Oklahoma to Nettie and Roy Smith on February 7, 1929 and was freed from her pain on February 11, 2025.
Funeral services will be held at 2:00 p.m., Friday, February 28, 2025 at the Martin-Dugger Funeral Home Chapel, Elk City, Oklahoma. Interment will be at Red Hill Cemetery, Hammon, Oklahoma. Services have been entrusted to the care of Richard and Tammy Dugger and the staff of Martin-Dugger Funeral Home and Cremation Services in Elk City, Oklahoma.
She was preceded in death by sister Maisie Flick and brothers Roy C. Smith, Jr. and John J. Smith.
She is survived by nieces, Mary Graybill, Waletta Newton, Dawn Tisdale and Jan Warfield; nephews, Jay Flick and John David Smith; great nephew, Justin Herndon; and great-great nephew, Deegon Herndon.
Memorials can be made to the Red Hill Cemetery in care of Martin-Dugger Funeral Home and Cremation Services, P.O. Box 707, Elk City, Oklahoma 73648.
We invite you to leave a message of condolence, expression of sympathy or perhaps share a memory of Rebecca at www.martin-duggerfuneralhome.com.
The family would like to invite all that cannot attend to watch the service live on Martin-Dugger Funeral Home and Cremation Services website.
To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Rebecca, please visit our floral store.