Ola Felts Simpson

© Tahlequah Daily Press Tahlequah, Oklahoma December 28, 2011

Submitted by: Jo Aguirre

TAHLEQUAH — Services for Ola Felts Simpson will be held at 10 a.m., Monday Dec. 27, 2010, in the Hart Funeral Home Chapel with Dr. Allen Schneider, pastor, Tahlequah First United Methodist Church, presiding. Interment will follow in the Tahlequah City Cemetery under the direction of Hart Funeral Home.

The Simpson and Felts families were among the pioneers who settled Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas. Ola Ela Felts was born into the Felts family at the beginning of World War I in 1914. Her father, Oscar Felts, was a Nazarene preacher who moved as called from town to town in Oklahoma and Arkansas.

They lived through the Great Depression as a family surviving in part on the large garden her father cultivated. Mother was often the family cook, taught well by her mother.

Unusual for the time, she attended college for several years, and then became a manager of a women's dress shop in Enid. There, she met her husband, Warren Weldon Simpson, and after a whirlwind romance, they married. They settled in Houston, where their only son, Dick Simpson, was born in 1940. Her husband was a lieutenant colonel in World War II. He participated in the Battle of the Bulge, and was award the Silver Star and the Purple Heart.

After the war, Warren Simpson became an oil man, renting oil field equipment to major companies. Ola took care of the household in an elegant, regal fashion. She also became an expert golfer and card player, as well as a member of the local Methodist Church. She became urban and sophisticated without losing her fundamental values.

In the 1980s, Ola and Warren retired to a beautiful home at Lake Travis, Texas, outside of Austin, where many of the Simpson and Felts clan visited. Later, Ola nursed Warren through 13 years of serious illness, ending in his death from Alzheimer's over a decade ago.

After Warren's death, Ola decided to move to Tahlequah to be with her Felts family relatives, especially Clay and Kay Felts and grandchildren. Her son, Dick, continued to visit frequently from Chicago, where he was a college professor and elected official.

Ola frequently entertained her family with legendary meals she had learned to cook as a business spouse in Houston. Her recipes were collected in a limited edition cookbook still treasured by her family.

After a stroke a few years back, Ola decided to give up her home and move to an apartment at Go Ye Village, where she made many friends and kept up her winning bridge game.

The Greek phrase "sophresyne," grace under pressure, defines Ola Simpson. She was a wonderful wife and mother, a loving sister and matriarch of both the Felts and Simpson family. She lived until her 96th birthday this month.

Along with Clay Felts, she helped to build the Felts playground for children and picnickers along the river in Tahlequah.

Her greatest legacy is the eloquence with which she lived her life in good times and bad, which those who knew her attempt to emulate. She had the quiet strength of a frontier woman, values that never wavered, deep compassion for the unfortunate, generosity, kindness and wisdom.

Ola is survived by one son, Dick Weldon Simpson of Chicago, Ill.; two grandchildren, August Donley and Kate Donley; one sister, Thressa Felts Williams, of Chattanooga, Tenn.; and numerous nieces and nephews.

In addition to her husband, she was preceded in death by her parents and three brothers, William, Andy and Clay Felts.

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