Ellen Milagros Ortega

Ellen Milagros Ortega was born July 3,1960 in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico, to Dora Coker Ortega (later Young) and Pablo Ortega. Her strong spirit carried her through this life until November 16, 2025. A member of the Sac and Fox Nation, she was also a descendant of the Seminole and Muscogee Creek Nations.

Known to her family as Cricket, she grew up in Seminole, Shawnee, Moore, and Puerto Rico and graduated in 1978 from Cupeyville School in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She lived all of her adult life in Norman, Oklahoma. After working at Griffin Memorial Hospital as a mental health aid from 1981 through 1988, she returned to school to complete her education, earning a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Central Oklahoma in 1992. When she returned to the workforce after graduation, she briefly worked for the Community Counseling Homeless project in Oklahoma City before being hired by the Oklahoma Department of Human Services as a family support specialist. She then transferred to DHS’s child welfare services and worked as a supervisor of child welfare case workers for almost twenty years. Her expertise and dedication to her work were well-known.

Ellen pursued her graduate education while working full-time. She earned a Master of Public Administration degree in 1997 and a Master of Social Work degree in 2006, both from the University of Oklahoma.

An intelligent and energetic person, she enjoyed gardening, reading, crafting, and staying up to date on the news and current events. She also loved animals, and over the years, she and her husband provided a loving home to several dogs.

Ellen is survived by her husband of more than 40 years, Robert Keller, whom she met while working at Griffin Memorial Hospital, and by their dogs, Hope, Bella and London. She is also survived by her sister, Lina Ortega (and partner Troy Shackelford), aunts Mary F. McCormick and Iris Garcia, and her cousins, brothers- and sisters-in-law, and nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her parents, her stepmother Karen Cook, and her nephews Steven Ortega, Peter Roberts, Cory Parker, Scott Allen and niece Tonja Keller.

Taken from us too soon, her kindness, intelligence, and perceptive advice will be greatly missed by her loved ones.

A celebration of Ellen’s life will be held on Sunday, December 7, 2025, 12:00 – 2:00 pm, at

The Depot, 200 S. Jones Avenue, Norman, Oklahoma.