Queenester Irene Tootle

Queenester Irene Tootle (September 29, 1946 – December 1, 2020) was born and raised in Boley, Oklahoma. The fifth of six children and the youngest girl in the family. It is no secret that she was everyone’s favorite, with a smile and personality that would fill the room, Queenie was hospitable, kind, and so much fun to be around. Surely, farm life was not going to satisfy her, so she set off for Langston college and along the way brought a beautiful baby boy into the world. With the love and support of her family, she balanced school and motherhood ready to take on the world until she met a soldier who was smitten with her smile and zest for life. Samuel Tootle Jr’s heart met its match when he crossed paths with his Queen. In no time at all, Queenester and her baby boy, Anthony were joined as a family to the young USAF soldier. Exactly one year to the day of their marriage, Queenester delivered another son, Samuel the third. Together the Tootles would embark on a lifetime of adventures to include travel overseas and across the US.

Family and friends will remember her most for her hospitality and love of the game. What game? You name it, if she wasn’t cheering on the Lakers and Cowboys with her first grandson, Dodgers and Sooners with her sons, she was in the stands of any youth team her children and later grandchildren were playing in. And why not, in her younger days, she was quite the basketball and softballer. But even that doesn’t cover the measure of the woman. Her friends called her Irene, and when across the pinochle and bid whist table, they called her trouble. She could play any board or card game put in front of her with the best of them. We all will miss her bravado when playing a winning hand, or the “talk” when an unsuspecting youngster took Nana too lightly at a game of Pit or spades. Just thinking about her at birthday parties, graduations, and any given Saturday drop-by brings a smile for all of the joy she brought to our lives.

Throughout her life, Queenester was a committed and baptized believer in Jesus Christ. The daughter of the devout Deacon Enoch Hayes, there was not a town that the Tootles settled in that would not see Queenester Tootle on the rolls of the local Baptist congregation. For more than 30 years, she was a dedicated member of the 2nd Baptist church, and while she was an avid Sunday school and evangelism student, she was most proud of her choir. Hers is among the voices that lifted up praise at the White House and in gospel workshops and recordings made in Las Vegas, Nevada, the last stop of the Tootle’s military tours. The impact of a believer is far reaching, as Queenester made sure her sons grew up knowing the powerful truth of the gospel and in the end she would see her husband rededicate his life to Christ, join the church and delve headlong in his pursuit of the truth. In her final days, Queenester would hear of how her love and tenacity would be foundational in bringing the men in her life to Jesus. What a beautiful testimony of a life well lived and fully loved. Our Queenester, Irene, Queenie, Sis, Auntie, Best Friend, Mama, Nana and Great Grandma will be sorely missed on this side of heaven.

Queenester is preceded in death by her husband Samuel David Tootle Jr., both of her parents, Enoch and Helen Hayes, her brother D.C. Hayes, and sisters Faye Paxton and Edna Hayes. Left to mourn her passing are her sons Anthony Brown and Samuel David Tootle III (Penny), her grandchildren, Darryl Tootle (Jacqueline), Aric Brown, Michael Tootle, Jeremiah Brown, and Sarah Brown, and her sister Lurlene Hayes-Johnson and brother Raymond Hayes, two great-grandchildren and a host of nieces, nephews, cousins and forever family in the faith.