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Lahoma was born in the family home near Nobscot, Oklahoma on January 11, 1928. The sixth child of Raymond Blanch (Pete) Baker and Mary Ella (McMurry) Baker. The Baker family lived near the South Canadian River in Dewey County which had a significant impact on Lahoma. As a child every spring she hunted morel mushrooms with her family and as an adult delighted in introducing her fiancé George to this treat and later instilled in her children a joy for hunting and eating the delicacy. She also enjoyed fishing for catfish and told of outings with her brothers fishing in the river with a pole and by hand. She also told of laying awake as a child listening to the roar of the flooding river and wondering how much destruction the morning would reveal. She spoke of riding the family horse, Rowdy, usually bareback. She thought Rowdy was the best horse ever!
Lahoma attended the first three grades of school at the nearby one room Bell school. She told of walking across “the big canyon” to get to school and dodging the neighbor’s horse that occasionally chased her as she cut across the pastures on the way to school. Starting in the fourth grade she began studying at the big school in Oakwood and had the luxury of riding a bus to school. The bus was actually a truck that hauled grain and other items during the summer but was converted to a school bus in the winter.
At school she met another student in her class who began school in Oakwood the same year - George Beckloff. As some teachers organized their classroom alphabetically, she often found herself near George. They developed a friendship that continued after they both graduated from Oakwood High School in 1946. After an extended trip west with her family to visit her sister Marlie in California, Lahoma attended college in nearby Weatherford for a semester. She later returned to the family home in Nobscot and continued to correspond with George. In the fall of 1948, she wrote to him about a job opportunity in Fay teaching agriculture to returning WWII veterans. He traveled from a ranch in South Dakota where he had been working to interview for the job which he later secured.
They were married on March 18, 1949. George and Lahoma lived in various locations in the Fay/Oakwood area until 1952 when they were able to purchase a farm that adjoined his parent’s land. They lived there and enjoyed the developing farm until 1955 when the drought of that time “starved them out.” George found employment in the oilfields of the Borger, Texas area and for several months Lahoma and their three children remained behind on the farm until George’s employment was secure and the farming operations could be wound down.
They remained in the Borger area until 1965 when they moved back to the Oakwood farm with their family which had grown to include six children. Since that time George and Lahoma remained on that farm. Today, in addition to their children they have 15 grandchildren and 31 great-grandchildren.
Words likely never spoken by Lahoma: “Just throw that old thing away and buy a new one.” Perhaps it was growing up out by the river or growing up during the depression, in any case, Lahoma valued making do with what we had. If something wore out, she did her best to fix it or look around the place to find something that could be used to make do. It amazed her children how often they would find something around the house that Lahoma had fixed and made do with. It is also amazing how many of these things are still in use.
On the afternoon of May 17, at age 96, Lahoma passed away in her home cared for by her family with the compassionate assistance of nurses from Russell Murray Hospice. Lahoma is survived by her children: Roger Beckloff, Kathy Westfall, Barbara and Jim Hudgens, Randy Beckloff, Ron and Becky Beckloff, Don and Becky Beckloff; fifteen grandchildren: Twyla and Jared Lucero, Joel Westfall, Violette and Brandon Harris, Travis and Tiffany Westfall, Mandy and Ryan Driskill, Drew and Kate Hudgens, Quinn and Dustin Rayner, Ben and Kendra Hudgens, Cherry and Josh Lunsford, Lacy and Ben Skelton, Brittany and Lance Sanchez, Preston Beckloff, Landon Beckloff, Kendall Beckloff, Caitlin Focht, and 31 great grandchildren. Lahoma is also survived by her sister, Naomi Anson and brother-in-law Ken Beckloff and his wife Patricia and sister-in law-Dottie Beckloff as well as numerous nieces and nephews. Lahoma is preceded in death by George, her husband of 74 years, infant child Lanny Gale, her parents, her sisters Marlie, Arvilla, Mable, and brothers Millage, Clifford, and RL.
Funeral services will be held at 2:00 p.m., Friday, May 24, 2024 at the Oakwood Auditorium with Minister Ryan Driskill officiating. Interment will follow at Oakwood Cemetery. Memorial donations are suggested to the Oakwood Fire Department with the funeral home serving as custodian at P.O. Box 36, Canton OK, 73724. Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.piercefuneralhomes.com.
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