Mary Ellen Lawrence

Funeral services for Mary Ellen Sands Lawrence will be held on Friday, June 15th, 2018 at 10:00 AM with Brother Billy Gene Hendricks officiating. Visitation will be held on Thursday June 14th, 2018 at Reed-Culver Funeral Home beginning at noon until 6:00 Pm. Her final resting place will be Long Springs Cemetery near Todd Access. Services have been entrusted to Reed-Culver Funeral Home.

Pallbearers include her girls, Carisa Bird, Milissa Echols, Stephanie Whaler, Misty Ashley, Elaine Wagnon, Johellen Reed, Kylie Owens, and Lori Jumper. Her honorary pallbearers include Kyle Higgins, Joseph Higgins, David Wagnon, Paul Phillips, and Matthew Jumper.

Mary Ellen Sands Lawrence was born on February 5th, 1943 in Tahlequah, OK, the daughter of Joe Sands and Annie Belle (Birdtail) Jumper. She grew up with three brothers and four sisters, Louella, Teresa, Dianna, Barbara, Jackie, Curtis and Matthew. She was a graduate of the Chilocco Indian School. She would later meet and marry her best friend and companion, Arnold Roy Lawrence. Together they raised a family of three sons and three daughters, Paul, Elaine, Johellen, Steve, Gerald, and Earlene. She worked as a nurse aide and also as a sanitation technician, but her favorite job was wife, mother and grandmother. She read her Bible daily, and also enjoyed time spent doing intricate beadwork. She enjoyed curling up on the couch with her two feline companions Mollie and Tom, and watching a good old western movie. She found the simple pleasure of life the best, like sitting out on her porch in the sun, drinking a glass of tea. There was nothing better than a road trip, and she was especially fond of nature, especially birds. She would work around the house singing the old gospel hymns in Cherokee, or perhaps the Everly Brothers on the radio. A Baptist by faith, she walked every Sunday to the First Baptist Church of Quinton, sat in her place on the second row, and enjoyed the fellowship of all her sisters in Christ, she loved them all. She was always ready to go to Sunday School class and was very fond of her Pastor, Brother Jeff Beng. Her grandchildren were her pride and joy, she was so very proud of all of their accomplishments. She passed from this life on June 11th, 2018 in Quinton, OK, she was 74 years old. She will be greatly missed.

She is preceded in death by her mother, father, husband Arnold in 2007, her daughter, Earlene Phillips, two brothers, Jackie Jumper and Curtis Jumper, two sisters, Louella Thompson, and Teresa Jumper, one grandson, Thomas Higgins and One great grandson, Remmington Benfer and her grandparents, Nancy Candy and John Birdtail.

Those left to cherish her memory include her children, Paul Canary Phillips of Tulsa, OK, Elaine Wagnon and husband David of Stigler, OK, Johellen Reed of Rogers County, OK, Steve Lawrence of Tulsa, OK, and Gerald Lawrence of Tahlequah, OK. She leaves one brother and two sisters, Matthew Jumper and wife Lori of Keys, OK and Dianna Bird and Wesley of Tahlequah, OK, and Barbara Jumper also of Tahlequah, OK. She lives on in her grandchildren, Dustin Phillips and wife Kimi, Britni Benfer and husband Aaron, Lindsay Phillips, Joseph Higgins, Gerald Lawrence Jr., Sue Ellen Lawrence, Stacy Kay Reed, Kyle Higgins, Michael Watkins, Jason Reed, Tiffany Reed, Sandra Phillips and companion Dustin Sang, and Murliah Lawrence. She also has 12 great grandchildren, Chesney Higgins, Kolton Higgins, Shania Wilson, Carson Benfer, Brayden Benfer, Noah Phillips, Nathaniel Sang, Jaime Sang, Jackson Sang, Hunter Sang, and Emma Phillips. She also leaves many nieces, nephews, cousins and a host of friends and loved ones too numerous to mention.