Wilma L. Cochran

Wilma grew up in and around Webb City, Missouri. She graduated from Webb City High School and in 1948 moved to Kansas City, Missouri where she started working for the Nazarene Publishing house.

Wilma became quite the prankster while working in Kansas City and one day took a dare to call a young man she had never met and ask him to church. He said yes but she had second thoughts. Wilma and her friend Alice went to his apartment to tell him they were going home on the weekend. She said he was welcome to come with her (never thinking he would). He was not home so they talked the landlady into letting them in to leave a note. (While they were there they short sheeted the bed.) That was the start of things and in December of 1950 she married William (Bill) Cochran. They were happily married for 63 years.

Wilma was preceded in death by her parents, Grace and William Watkins and her siblings, Elizabeth, Lorraine, Mary Louise, Betty, Bill, and Sonny. Also preceding her were her husband Bill, her granddaughter Amelia, and her great-grandson Jayden.

Wilma is survived by her three sons, William (Andy) and Mary Cochran of Corpus Christi, Texas; Mark and Joey Cochran of Los Lunas, New Mexico; and Dan Cochran of Reno, Nevada. She is also survived by her one sister Ruth Cook of Kansas City, Kansas and her grandchildren Sean, Brad, Anna, Andy, and Krystal. Her pride and joy great-grandchildren Tyla, Breanna, Trey, Connor, Brodie, Hunter, Andrea, Ayden, Alyssa and Alyse survive her as well as many other relatives, church family and friends.

A Memorial Service was celebrated at Lexington Baptist Church at 11:00 am on Friday, January 15, 2016. Inurnment followed at Memory Gardens Mausoleum.