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Juanita McGee Wilson Whittenberg © Enid News and Eagle 09-2016 Submitted by: Glenn
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Juanita McGee (Wilson) Whittenberg, 97, died Monday, Sept. 19, 2016, of age-related causes. The service is 2 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 24, 2016, at Ladusau-Evans Funeral Home, Enid, with the Rev. Phil Jones officiating. Burial follows at Memorial Park Cemetery.
Juanita was born Oct. 23, 1918, outside Corinth, Mont., to Lula Joy (Culwell) Wilson and Clark Garl Wilson. It was 19 days before the end of WWI. At that time, horse power was a real horse, and running water was the creek beside the house, which was built into the side of a hill for protection from the weather. Rounding up and green-breaking wild horses for the army was a profitable profession.
After the war, the Wilsons moved back to Oklahoma by rail, instead of covered wagon as they had come to Montana. They located in Lenora, just down the road from Joy's brother, Les Culwell, who was married to Clark's sister, Gertrude, and their two daughters, Frances and Leola. The three girls rode their horses to school, just as they had in Montana. April 14, 1927, Juanita's mother died of pneumonia and she, 8 ½, and her brother, Marvin Lee, 2 ½, moved in with their double cousins.
In the middle of the Dust Bowl and The Great Depression in 1935, Juanita graduated valedictorian from Taloga High School. On July 17, 1938, she married the love of her life, Kenneth Franklin Whittenberg. He had gotten a job with the Dept. of Agriculture and they could afford to marry. They learned not to make a mountain out of a mole hill, not to put all their eggs in one basket, and not to spin their wheels, but to use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without. Their daughter, Joy, was born March 28, 1941, nine months before Pearl Harbor. Their son, Kenneth Lee, was born April 11, 1944, two months before Germany surrendered. In 1945, Juanita rode a troop train to California and back, to visit Kenneth before he shipped out on the U.S.S. Bennington, just as Japan surrendered.
After his year in the navy, Kenneth was assigned office manager of the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service (ASCS) in Enid, and it became their home for the next 54 years. They marveled as their world became motorized, electrified, and airborne. Juanita worked at Hurwitz Men's Clothiers, Evan's Drug, and the Oklahoma Employment Commission, but her real job was homemaker (seamstress, nurse, dietitian, chauffeur, vet, councilor, historian, innovator, camper and adventurer).
In 1974, she joined Kenneth in retirement and they traveled in their motor home from Florida to California, Canada to Mexico and visited all the family, friends, and interesting sights in all 50 states, including Alaska and Hawaii.
Kenneth and Juanita were long-time members of the First United Methodist Church of Enid.
At 80, she rode a mule down the Grand Canyon, and at 82, welcomed a new century and a new daughter-in-law, when Ken married Mary Stover. They combined their three households, and at 92, after Ken's death, she moved in with her daughter and son-in -law and became a "Texan," with a shrug and a smile.
Juanita was preceded in death by her husband, Kenneth F., in 1995; her son, Kenneth L. in 2010.
She is survived by her brother, Marvin Lee Wilson, Stillwater,; daughter-in-law, Mary Whittenberg, Enid; daughter and son-in-law, Joy and Glenn Richardson, Longview, Texas; granddaughter and husband, Sheryl and Jon Lumbley, Red Oak, Texas; grandson and wife, Greg and Carrie Richardson, Round Rock, Texas; and four great-grandchildren, J.C. and Kristen Lumbley, Dallas, Texas; and Meghan and Ian Richardson, Round Rock, Texas. She is also survived by her very special nieces, Rhonda Leigh Wilson, Stillwater; Allie Adel Roney, Barrington, Ill.; and Maryln Sue Turner, Littleton, Colo.
Condolences may be made and the service viewed online at www.LadusauEvans.com
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