Graveside services for Maxine House Lanza will be held on Friday, May 18th, 2018 at 12:00 Pm noon, at Ft. Gibson National Cemetery with Chaplain Terry Wofford officiating. Visitation for Maxine will be held on Thursday, May 17th, 2018 beginning at noon until 6:00 PM at Reed-Culver Funeral Home. She will be laid to rest with her husband, Peter Guido Lanza.
Maxine House Lanza was born on July 24th in Bokoshe, OK, the daughter of Walter and Leacy Ola (Mills) House. She grew up in a family of three brothers and three sisters, Sherman, Herman, Thurman, Mabel, Bernice and Ophelia. The family moved to Tahlequah in 1942, and Maxine attended school and graduated from Tahlequah High School. She would then continue her education and obtain her Licensed Practical Nursing Degree. During the end of WWII, she met a soldier from the state of Pennsylvania stationed at Camp Gruber. She would marry Peter Guido Lanza, and together they raised a family of two sons and one daughter, DiAnn, Pete and Joseph. Peter passed in 1991 and Maxine remained in the Tahlequah area where she worked as a nurse at the old Tahlequah City Hospital. When she had free time, Maxine enjoyed being in her garden raising beautiful flowers and vegetables. She was gifted with a needle and could quilt and sew anything. She was a dedicated nurse and always gave 100% of herself for those entrusted to her care. Maxine was a devoted wife, mother, grandmother and great grandmother. She adored any time spent with her family and was so very proud of her granddaughters, Stephanie Biggers-Conkin, Jennifer Harris and Amanda Lanza. Her health began to fail her and she passed from this life on Sunday, May 13th, 2018 in Tahlequah, OK. She will be greatly missed by all those who knew and loved her.
Maxine is preceded in death by her mother, father, her husband Peter, and her brothers and sisters, Sherman House, Herman House, Thurman House, Mabel Kiddy, Bernice Wood, and Ophelia Schworer.
Those left to cherish her memory include her children, DiAnn Biggers and husband Ron of Altus, OK, Pete Lanza and wife Katherine of Oldsmar, FL, and Joseph Lanza of Collinsville, OK. She lives on in her granddaughters, Jennifer Harris and her children, Evan Harris and Avery Harris, Stephanie Biggers-Conkin and daughter Madison Conkin, and Amanda Lanza, as well as many nieces, nephews, cousins and a host of friends and loved ones.
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