Margaret Ann McMurtrey

Margaret Ann McMurtrey, 98, of Oklahoma City, passed away September 14, 2017, after a brief illness. The family will receive guests at the funeral home on Monday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. A graveside service is scheduled for 10 a.m., Tuesday, September 19, 2017, at Chapel Hill Memorial Gardens under the direction of Chapel Hill Funeral Home. She was born November 3, 1918, at Decatur, Texas, to William Edward and Minnie Eula (Mote) Vermillion. She grew up at Alvord and O’Donnell, Texas, and graduated from O’Donnell High School and Wayland Baptist College. She married her high school sweetheart Milford McMurtrey in October 1937, and they established a home in Brownwood, Texas, where their first child was born in 1939. During World War II, while her husband was serving overseas in the U.S. Army Air Forces, she worked as a bookkeeper in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and O’Donnell. After his return from wartime service in December 1945, his career with the Texas Department of Public Safety and Employers Casualty Co. of Dallas, took them to Abilene, Lubbock, Ft. Worth, Freeport, and Wichita Falls, Texas, and Oklahoma City, with Margaret also working as an Avon Representative and church secretary to help her children with high school and college expenses while maintaining the family home. They retired in 1982 and in retirement became volunteers at Bethany Hospital while spending leisure time travelling, bird watching, and playing bridge with friends. Since 2005 they had resided at Baptist Village, Oklahoma City, and following his death in 2008 she remained an active member of the Baptist Village community until her health began to decline. Surviving are a son, James Michael and wife Linda, of Carrollton, Texas; a daughter, Kathleen Duhamel and husband Tom, of Arvada, Colorado; and many nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her husband, a daughter, a brother, and four sisters. She will be remembered for her smile, her sense of humor, her love of music, her excellent cooking, her uncanny skills at bridge and forty-two, and the love, support, and encouragement she gave her children. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Baptist Village of Oklahoma City or to Golden Age Hospice. Arrangements under the direction of Chapel Hill Funeral Home, Oklahoma City, OK.