Mary Jo Parker

Mary Jo (Trumbla) Phenis Parker, 93 was born July 29, 1927 in Perry, Oklahoma , the daughter of Edward B. Trumbla and Peggy E. (Swindle) Trumbla . She went to be with her Lord and Savior on October 21, 2020 at Green Valley nursing Home in Perry, Oklahoma
Funeral services will be held at 10 AM Saturday, October 24, 2020 at the First United Methodist Church in Perry, Oklahoma. Pastor Hagen Jackson will officiate. Burial will be at Fairland Cemetery in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Under the direction of Dighton Marler Funeral Home of Perry.
Mary Jo grew up in Perry, attending Perry Public schools until the last half of her senior year. Her parents moved to Stillwater in hopes to keep her and her first love from marrying. She graduated from Stillwater in 1945 but was a Maroon through and though being invited back to many class reunions. Upon her graduation she married Dale Phenis on August 26, 1945 at the 1st. Presbyterian Church in Perry, Oklahoma. They moved to Edmond, Oklahoma where she was active with being a housewife. Together they had 4 children. They then moved to the Village, Ok City where she was active with the kids in school functions. She was active with Girl Scouts for many years and sports with the boys. She started working at Snyder’s Hardware in Edmond and Dale was a Village fireman until Dale retired and they moved to Cedar Lake, Hinton, Oklahoma where the whole family built a cabin to retire to. She still worked until after 36 years, the couple parted ways. In March 1981, Mary Jo married Jim (J.W.) Parker and lived on a farm just south of Yukon Oklahoma where she started her interest in the Chisholm Trail Cattle Drive. Together J.W. and her traveled all around in their RV where they did re-enactments all around Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas. Mary Jo received many plaques and awards, one being inducted into the Wall of Fame in Yukon, Oklahoma on March 2005. See loved to crochet, read, traveling, crossword puzzles, watch Texas Rangers baseball games but mainly her whole family. After the death of her husband, she moved back to Perry where she was a member of the Noble County Genealogy Society and worked at the Cherokee Strip Museum. Member of the First United Methodist Church.
She is survived by one sister, Barbara Overholt and husband Darrel of Stillwater, Oklahoma; one cousin Tom Trumbla and wife Hulda of Perry, Oklahoma. One son ; Robert (Lonnie) Phenis and wife Linda of Beatrice, Nebraska and one daughter, H. Dalann (Box) Covington and husband Don of Perry, Oklahoma. 13 grandchildren ; Maria (Box) Mack and husband Bryan, Donna (Box) Hopkins (Jim), Michelle (Phenis) Pearsall and husband Hill, Tanya (Phenis) Frerichs and husband Todd, David Helderman, Melissa (Phenis) Manit and husband Freddie, Rene’ (Phenis) Patton and husband Mark, Brandon Box, Timothy Helderman, Robert Russell (Felicia), Sarah Russell (Josh), Joshua Phenis and wife Darralann and Jason Phenis
(Katie).
25 great grandchildren, 10 great great grandchildren and one on the way, 5 nieces, many great nieces and nephews.
She was preceded in death by her parents; husbands Dale Phenis and J.W. Parker; one brother and sister-in- law, Jon and Betty Trumbla; one son David Phenis and one daughter, Joy Smith.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Noble County Genealogy Society or the Cherokee Strip Museum of Perry.