Hazel L. Skidgel

Hazel L. Skidgel was born May 28, 1917 in Clarksville, Arkansas. She was the daughter of John Virgil and Essie Hallum. Hazel had six sisters and one brother. She moved with her family to Hulbert, Oklahoma at the age of eight and then to Cushing, Oklahoma in 1930. She was baptized into the family of Christ at the age of thirteen in the Arkansas River.

In 1932, Hazel's family settled in Pawnee. A few years later in Spring of 1936 she met Henry A. ''Ab'' Skidgel at a party in the Star A Star Community. After a short separation while Ab went to California, the couple was married on November 11, 1937 in Stillwater, Oklahoma by eloping from the cotton patch where they where working together. They made their initial home on a farm near Glencoe. They had four children; Delores, Nancy, Barbara and Wesley, who were all born in the Glencoe area.

The Skidgels moved to Cleveland in 1952. Upon their arrival in Cleveland, the couple joined the First Baptist Church where Hazel taught Sunday School for many years. They later became member of the Westport Baptist Church where Hazel continued to teach Sunday School and be actively involved.

After Ab's retirement the couple traveled extensively as Campers on Mission. Through this mission effort, Ab and Hazel assisted in the building of new churches all over the United States including, Arkansas, Oregon, California, Kansas, Texas South Dakota. Additionally, they traveled with the Campers on Mission to Canada and Haiti. In 1999, the couple transferred their membership to the Western Heights Baptist Church in Cleveland where they continued to be actively involved.

Hazel worked for a few years at Hissom Memorial, near Sand Springs and then later was employed as a nurse's aide at the Cleveland Area Hospital for nearly nine years. Her hobbies including sewing, crocheting, yard work and horseshoes. She was also an avid bowler and participated in the Senior Bowling League in Cushing with her husband, Ab.

Hazel passed away on Saturday, April 19, 2003 at the Cimarron Pointe Care Center in Mannford at the age of eighty-five years, ten months and twenty-one days. She was preceded in death by her parents; daughter, Delores Earhart; two grandsons, Brad and Cole Cook; great-granddaughter, Hayley Benzler; and a sister, Lola Feaster.

She is survived by her husband of sixty-five years, Ab , of the home; two daughters and their spouses, Nancy and Leroy Wooley of Tahlequah, Oklahoma and Barbara ''Bobby'' and Darrel ''Bud'' Hamil of Mannford, Oklahoma ; a son and his wife, Wesley and Mary Skidgel of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma; eight grandchildren, sixteen great-grandchildren, brother, Laurence and Ellen Hallum, Siloam Springs, Arkansas; five sisters, Elsie Skidgel of Edmond, Oklahoma, Ann and Larry Pippinger of Cushing, Oklahoma, Jesse Robbins of Pawnee, Oklahoma, Joy and H. B. Minney of Pawnee, Oklahoma, and Arita and Tom Nixon of Panama City, Florida.

Funeral services will be held at 2:00 pm, Wednesday, April 23, 2003 at the Western Heights Baptist Church with Rev. David Head and Dr. Eugene Perry officiating. Burial will be at the Woodland Cemetery under the direction of the Chapman-Black Funeral Home.

''Visit and online obituary and guest book for Hazel Skidgel at www.chapman-black.com.''