Ora Belle Higgins

ORA BELLE (GRIFFIN) HIGGINS passed peacefully from this life on August 6, 2019. Services have been entrusted to the care of Advantage Funeral Service. A private family graveside took place on August 9th at Osceola Cemetery near Butler, OK. A service celebrating Ora Belle’s remarkable life will take place in a few weeks. Please watch this website for future service details.

Born on November 19, 1924, in Rush Springs, Oklahoma, Ora Belle, or Shug, as her family called her, was the second child born to the union of John Price Griffin and Elsie Prudence Griffin. Following Ora Belle’s older brother Nathan and herself were five more children—John Owen, Ethylene, Wanda, Betty, and Donald. Elsie’s daughter Velda also grew up with the family, and was always considered another sister.

The family moved to western Oklahoma when Ora Belle was a small child, and settled in the Osceola community located near Butler. There the children attended school, often wading snow “up to their knees” to get to and from school (or so they would later have their children believe). But in fact times were hard. The Dust Bowl and the Great Depression drove many people out of Oklahoma, in search of a better life in California. But the Griffins stuck it out—mainly because, as Ora Belle once told her daughter—they didn’t have enough money to do anything else.

In 1940, Ora Belle married George—known to everyone as Georgie—Higgins, also of the Osceola community. George and Ora Belle purchased 60 acres of land from George’s mother, and set up a small farming operation. Soon Georgie was also farming his brother-in-law’s three farms. As the children came along, Joan in 1943, Jim in 1945, and Larry in 1947, they too soon became a part of the farming operation.

While Georgie and their sons arose early to milk cows before going to school, Ora Belle was preparing a hearty breakfast. During the summer months, the boys helped harvest wheat, bail and store hay, plow fields, etc., working alongside their dad often to the early hours of the morning. Joan too sometimes worked in the fields but more often she helped her mother prepare food to take to the hands in the field. Ora Belle prided herself on being able to whip up a cake from scratch, fry a couple of chickens, make mashed potatoes, and prepare a fresh vegetable from the garden, all by noon. Ora Belle and Joan spent many an afternoon sitting under the shade tree shelling peas, snapping green beans or shucking corn to put in the freezer.

During the winter months, Georgie and Ora Belle devoted much of their time to their three children’s extra-curricular events, by attending baseball games, basketball games or agricultural events. No matter how pressing a farm matter might be, Georgie and Ora Belle always put it on hold to support their kids. They were also enthusiastic supporters of the school, and served nearly every year as class parents.

But the long hours and hard work took its toll on Georgie, and his doctor told him to quit farming. In 1961, the family moved to Weatherford, Oklahoma. Ora Belle went to beauty school and opened her own beauty shop, and Georgie went to work for the ASCS office. But it was the years of 1964 and 1965 changed Ora Belle’s life forever. In the fall of 1964 she was the victim of a car accident that left her permanently partially paralyzed on her right side. Through hard work, grit and sheer will, she struggled to learn to walk again and to use her left arm and hand. Unfortunately, while she was still receiving physical therapy, Georgie died suddenly of a massive coronary.

After the accident and death of her husband, Ora Belle used her entrepreneurial spirit to become a respected local businesswoman. She sold the farm north of Butler and built an apartment house in Weatherford. She ran her beauty shop and apartment properties for years to come, until finally retiring in the 1990’s.

Ora Belle was preceded in death by her husband George Higgins; her parents John and Elsie Griffin; two sons: Jimmie and Larry Higgins; siblings Velda Higgins, Nathan Griffin, J.O. Griffin, Ethylene Ennis, Wanda Mosley, and Betty Neff. She is survived by her daughter Joan Dobbs of Oklahoma City; six grandchildren: Kevin Higgins of Sand Springs, Kenna Ford and husband Matthew of Norman, Jodie Burton and husband Brad of Yukon, Holly Clark and husband Bevan of Frisco, TX, Wade Higgins and wife Jennifer of Edmond, Steven Higgins and wife Tiffany of Sand Springs. She is also survived by her 16 great grandchildren, brother Donald Griffin and wife Sandy of Longview, TX, as well as numerous nieces, nephews and beloved family members.

Condolences may be sent to the family via an online guestbook at Advantageokc.com.