Services for Lila Jean Baxter, 91, of Stratford, OK are at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, April 2nd at the Ada Church of the Nazarene; Rev. Brian Smith will be officiating. Visitation will be at Criswell Funeral Home in Ada, OK from 12:00p.m. to 8:00 p.m. on Friday, April 1st. There will also be a viewing at the church immediately following the service. Graveside service will be at 4:00 p.m. Saturday, at Beggs Cemetery in Beggs, Oklahoma.
Mrs. Baxter died Saturday, March 17, 2022, at her home in Stratford, Oklahoma. She was born in Beggs, Oklahoma November 16, 1930, to Roy and Buna (Groover) Hill. She spent her childhood in Beggs and Okmulgee, attending Okmulgee High School.
She met her forever sweetheart, Wendell Loyd Baxter, at a Sunday School party when she was 14, and they were married December 5, 1947. They were married for 65 years before Mr. Baxter’s death in 2013. He and Jean made their home in Bethany, OK and Vancouver, WA before he retired in 1994. After retirement they moved back to Oklahoma where they lived in Buncombe Creek before moving near their daughter Linda in Stratford in 2000. Jean loved artistic crafts. Her hands were always busy crocheting, sewing beautiful dresses for her daughters and granddaughters, and making ceramics, which were a special joy. She even opened her home to help others make beautiful pieces. She later made porcelain dolls and dressed them in her own beautiful, home-sewn creations.
Survivors include her daughter, Linda and her husband Jack of Stratford, OK; daughter, Sherrie Baxter and Bill Brent of Vancouver, WA; seven grandchildren, Bryan and wife Carey, Rebecca and husband Clifford, Daniel, Michelle and husband Mark, Rachel, Jonathan and wife Sarah, and Melinda Pound; four great grandchildren; and numerous nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her husband Wendell, her parents; and siblings Hazel Aldridge and husband Otha, Ruby Baughn and husband Loie, Mavis Aldridge and husband Troy, Mary Edith (Hill) Bonham, Frances Purcell and husband Bill, Bertie Lou Hill, Bud Hill Jr and wife Ruby, and Wanda (Hill) Flood.
Those who wish may make memorials in memory of Jean to her granddaughter’s mission work in Belize. https://cten.org/missionary/cliffordcal/
Criswell Funeral Home, Ada
