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Memorial Services for Rhonda Kay (Baird) Lanning, will be 2:00 p.m., Saturday, December 13, 2025 at the Fairview Church of the Nazarene, Fairview, Oklahoma. Reverend John Reed will officiate. Arrangements are by Fairview Funeral Home, Inc.
Rhonda Kay (Baird) Lanning was born on January 25, 1952 in Fairview, Oklahoma to Donald and Wilma (Hoffman) Baird and left this world on December 9, 2025 while at Integris Baptist Medical Center in Oklahoma City. She was 73 years old.
After graduating high school in 1970, she married Carl Kappel and to this union Mary Kappel was born sleeping on July 12, 1973. She married classmate Garold Ake in November 1975, and to this union Melissa and Tammy were born. On June 15, 1991 she married the love of her life, Arnold Lee Lanning, and the family settled just outside of Canton, Oklahoma. Rhonda and Arnold would have 32 years of marital bliss until his untimely passing in 2024.
In 1975 Rhonda graduated from nursing school in Woodward with her LPN license. She worked at Fairview Regional Medical Center as a med/surg nurse and home health nurse for many years, as a charge nurse at the Fairview Fellowship Home, and as a clinic nurse for Dr. Klinger at Fairview Regional Medical Center until 2018, when she was forced into retirement due to health problems. Rhonda was a caring, compassionate nurse. The only thing that got between her and nursing was her health.
Before her health took a turn, Rhonda loved reading her Bible, reading Wanda Brunstetter books, crocheting, playing cards, bowling on the national level with her mother, and traveling. One of Rhonda and Arnold’s last trips was to see the hot air balloons in Albuquerque, New Mexico. They also went on several cruises to the Caribbean and Alaska. She was the proud wife of a Mason and joined Eastern Star in 1991. She was a member of the Cherokee Eastern Star chapter. Rhonda also helped with the American Legion. She was a beloved member of the Fairview Church of the Nazarene where she served as a board member until moving into assisted living in Oklahoma City.
In 2018, Rhonda was diagnosed with interstitial lung disease. In October of 2018 she was put on the transplant list and received a 20-year old’s donated lung 2 weeks later. This gift would give us 7 more years with Rhonda, and she was able to see all 6 grandchildren graduate from high school. Her family is forever grateful for the gift of life this donor gave us. She survived several bouts of pneumonia, including COVID pneumonia, before the last bout of pneumonia took her from us. She will be missed.
Rhonda is survived by her daughters Melissa and husband Jeffrey Smith of Oklahoma City, and Tammy Garcia and Clay of Clinton, Oklahoma, six grandchildren: Addie Smith, Destiny Smith, Xavier Garcia, Breanna Garcia, Ethan Smith, and Aubre Garcia, three great-grandchildren, sister Donna Poulter of Enid, Oklahoma, and many nieces and friends.
She is preceded in death by her husband Arnold, her parents, and her daughter Mary.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Life Share.
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