Myrna Elaine Wing

Myrna was born February 3, 1930, in Lincoln, NE, the youngest child of John Gilbert and Ruth Avis Orton Williams. When Myrna was still very young the family relocated to Broadwater, in western NE, where they farmed for a time. However, persistent drought and the economic effects of the Great Depression took their toll, and by about 1936 they were forced to abandon farming, and they headed further west. They spent a couple of years in Fruitland, ID, hiring out for agricultural work and other odd jobs, but work was scarce and money hard to come by. Myrna’s mother supposedly became an expert at apple recipes by utilizing windfall apples from the local orchards. Finally, in 1939, Myrna’s aunt in Seattle advised them of a steady job opportunity working in the greenhouses in rural Woodinville, WA, and the family soon settled there.

Myrna graduated from Bothell High School (near Woodinville) in 1948. Not long thereafter she met Harold Wing, the older brother of one of her best friends. Harold had returned home to Woodinville after the war and was finishing up a degree in chemical engineering at the University of Washington. They were married on December 18, 1948, in Bothell.

The couple settled first in Vancouver, WA, where Harold was hired into a civil service position at Bonneville Power. Over the next twenty years he held a number of different jobs that took the family to San Jose, CA; Lawrence, KS; and then back to Southern California, with interim stays in England for a year and in the S.F. Bay Area for about a year and a half. During those years they raised three children, Gregory, Marcia and Jeffrey.

In 1969 Harold’s company was acquired by Kerr McGee and the family was transferred to Oklahoma City, where Harold and Myrna spent the remainder of their lives. Myrna was active in Newcomers for many years, and she and Harold were avid square dancers as long as their health permitted. Through these activities they made many good friends whom they both remained close to, although age gradually thinned out their ranks. Even in her later years Myrna remained very active, participating more or less weekly in a mahjongg group, playing bridge socially and otherwise getting together with friends. Myrna also became proficient at transcribing in Braille, and she served as a volunteer for nearly twenty years preparing educational materials for the blind, including school textbooks.

Myrna was very involved with her extended family. She faithfully exchanged letters with her mother every week until Grandma Ruth died in 1972; afterward she did the same with her father until he also passed away in 1985. At her own passing, Myrna was the mother of two living children (Jeffrey died in 1991), eleven grandchildren and 39 great grandchildren. Consequently, she entertained family about weekly at her home and was ever a gracious and active hostess.

Myrna was preceded in death by her parents and her three older siblings (Stanley, Marilyn and Rubye) and by her husband and her son Jeffrey.

A visitation for Myrna will be held Saturday, April 8, 2023 from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM at Bill Merritt Funeral Service, 6201 Northwest 39th Expressway, Bethany, OK 73008. Following the visitation will be a funeral service at 2:00 PM at Bill Merritt Memorial Chapel, 6201 Northwest 39th Expressway, Bethany, OK 73008.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.billmerrittfuneralservice.com for the Wing family.

Services may be watched live by copying the following link and pasting into your web browser. Live streaming will began 10 minutes prior to service time. https://view.oneroomstreaming.com/index.php?data=MTY4MDU3MDg5NjI0NDM5NCZvbmVyb29tLWFkbWluJmNvcHlfbGluaw==