Dawn Richardson

Dawn Richardson passed away the morning of May 9, 2023. She was born in Canada in 1942 and relocated to Oklahoma in 1943. Due to her dad’s job in the oilfields, her family moved around the state, which is one of the reasons she could make friends with anyone she met. Her love for animals was kindled at an early age when her sister, Gail, and she owned horses. She graduated from Bristow High School before becoming the first member of her family to attend college. At Abilene Christian University she pursued and completed a degree in education, of which, she applied her entire life.

Shortly after graduation, she met the first love of her life, Wayne Davis, and moved with him to Missouri as the wife of a Church of Christ pastor. She experienced both joy and sorrow while in Missouri. Her joy was the birth of her oldest son, Scott. The sorrow was the terminal diagnosis of her new husband.

Dawn found herself a single parent in Oklahoma City after Wayne’s death in 1968. Fortunately, Wayne’s brother, Curtis, played match maker in early 1969 by introducing his best friend to her. She married Arnold Richardson in 1969 and they lived happily together for the next 38 years.

Arnold and Dawn relocated to Midwest City after their marriage and set about building a life together. They welcomed her second son, Bart, to the world in 1973 and her third son, Rod in 1979. She worked as an elementary school teacher until Bart’s birth and devoted the next decade to being a homemaker, where she educated, encouraged, supported, disciplined, and mentored three rambunctious boys.

She loved sports and it was common to find her at one of her son’s sporting events. She had a big heart for animals, and took care of the neighborhood cats, the occasional raccoon and even a skunk. Her love for horses created a passion for the Kentucky Derby. Her hobbies reflected her many interests from fishing to metal detecting, to reading, to photography, to watercolor painting, to baseball card collecting, to watching OU sporting events on television and in person.

In 2004, she found herself the care giver for a sick husband and a widow for the second time when Arnold passed away in 2007. Her faith sustained her during this tough time and gave her the courage to reinvent herself.

She spent the last years of her life having adventures. She started traveling all over the country, to see places she had always wanted to visit. She fulfilled a lifelong dream of attending the Kentucky Derby in 2011. She spent two weeks in California with her sisters Gail and Beverly, where they worked on their watercolor painting. She traveled around the state attending high school football and baseball games coached by Rod. She attended the occasional OU football game with Bart and the occasional OU basketball game with Scott.

Dawn is preceded in death by her parents, Taylor and Stephanie Ford and her husbands, Wayne, and Arnold. She is survived by her sisters, Gail Pester and her husband Gene of Tuttle, OK; Beverly Fields and her husband Don of Desert Hot Springs, CA; her children, Scott and his wife, Wauneva of Oklahoma City, OK; Bart his wife, Carrie of Moore, OK; Rod and his wife, Erin of Bartlesville, OK; her Grandchildren, Nicole, Skipper, Kaylee, Presley, Ryane, Reed, Hudson, Jacoby, and Rexton; her Niece, Danielle, along with many other nephews and nieces.

A visitation for Dawn will be held Monday, May 15, 2023 from 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM at Bill Eisenhour Funeral Home, 5005 SE 29th Street, Del City, OK 73115. A funeral service will occur Tuesday, May 16, 2023 at 1:00 PM at Meadowood Baptist Church, 2816 N. Woodcrest Dr., Midwest City, OK 73110.

Dawn will be laid to rest in Little Cemetery, Seminole, OK.