Joan Cordelia Gray Martin

© The Bakersfield Californian

18 February 2004

Submitted by: Sandi Carter

Memorial services will be held on Saturday, February 21, 2004, at 10:00 a.m., at Autumn Oaks Chapel.

Valentine's Day, February 14, 2004, was the day chosen by the Lord to call our Mother home. That day, which celebrates love and devotion, seems somehow fitting for one who gave so unsparingly of those gifts.

Mother was born August 8, 1912, in Altus, Oklahoma. She was reared and educated in Edmond, Oklahoma, where she was graduated from both High School and Central State Teachers College - now the University of Central Oklahima. In 1933, she married our father, James Debord Gray, with whom she attended college. They taught school together in rural Oklahoma until World War II. Their marriage ultimately became a casualty of the War. Mother married Herschel Martin in May 1950, and they remained together until his death in 1991.

During the war, mother began a career, which spanned several branches of Federal Civil Service. She worked with the Social Security Office in Bakersfield until her retirement in the early 1970s.

She was respected and admired by all who knew her, as a cultured, elegant and beautiful lady. As a wife and mother, she was without equal, always willing to put the needs of those she loved before her own.

Mother was preceded in death by her mother, father, sister and brother. She leaves her two sons, James Donald and Stephen; for grandchildren, five great grandchildren; a beloved sister-in-law and numerous nieces and nephews, as well as many friends.

The family asks that donations or memorials be made to either the Alzheimer's Foundation or Heritage Bible Church.

Mother, we miss you and will always love you. Your loving sons, Donald and Stephen.

www.dignitymemorial.com

AUTUMN OAKS Funeral Home

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