Lena Lee J. Yount Rodgers

Lena “Lee” Joyce (Yount) Rodgers, 80, passed away peacefully in her sleep on Monday January 29, 2013 in her home in Park Hill, Ok. She was born August 22, 1932 in Middlesboro, KY to John and Delcie (Perry) Yount. Lena was a woman of faith and was a member of the Park Hill Baptist Church and Park Hill Baptist Women’s Sunday School Group.

She attended Clearfield Elementary School and Pruden High School in Claiborne County Tennessee before moving to Rural Stilwell at the end of WWII in 1944. It was there she attended Cave Springs, UG High School in Stilwell, Ok where she was an avid basketball player. After high school she worked in the court clerk’s office in Stilwell where she met her future husband, H. Max Rodgers. After a brief courtship, Max and Lee married and started their family in Norman, Oklahoma in 1952, later moving to Oklahoma City then Stillwater. They were married for 51 years. In Stillwater, Lena attended Oklahoma State University and later received her Oklahoma Real Estate License. She was a faithful member of University Heights Baptist Church and Women’s Group in Stillwater where she made many friends, still staying in touch over the years.

Lena was Property Manager of Park West Mobile Home Park for 40 years, where friends would often call her, “The Mayor.”

She was proud of her granddaughter, Kaylee Litao Marshall, and enjoyed taking her to Lake Tenkiller to throw rocks into the water. She also showed Kaylee how to have fun in the kitchen, making cinnamon rolls and watching the yeast bread magically “rise-up” in the bowl. Lena liked her coffee cup warmed up for that first cup in the morning, and a pot of pinto beans, potatoes and cornbread was one of her favorite dinners next to a big bowl of green beans with onions. She liked country music, crossword puzzles, a bouquet of long stem Iris, stimulating dinner conversations and poetry by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Lena said, “We used to read poetry to each other when we were young and gay. Max’s favorite poet was Robert Browning and mine was Elizabeth Barrett Browning.” Lena had a great sense of humor that would often catch people off guard. Recently, when handed a washcloth to, “wipe her face off,” she replied, “I don’t want to do that, I still need my face!” Because she was kind, she recognized the kindness in everyone, especially her sisters and brother and other family members & friends when they would take the time to sit with her, hold her hand and help her when she was too ill to take care of herself. Lena had lung cancer and for the past year she received radiation treatments until her body became too weak to function in day to day living. Along with many family members, the Tahlequah Hospice nurses and aides provided daily loving and gentle care for Lena until her body could no longer survive in this world.

Lena was preceded in death by her son, Max Douglas Rodgers, husband H. Max Rodgers, brother John W. Yount and parents John and Delcie Yount.

Surviving is one daughter, Aletha Rodgers Marshall and granddaughter, Kaylee L. Marshall and son in law, Paul Vik Marshall of Los Angeles, CA., two sisters, Norma Stilwell, Helen Harrison and one brother Ronald Yount, and numerous nieces, nephews and cousins, all of Park Hill, Ok., and a host of friends.