A memorial service for Betty “Coleene” McHendry, age 68, of Enid, will be held at 11:00 AM on Saturday, February 1, 2020 at the Zion Lutheran Church in Fairmont, Oklahoma with Pastor Mark Blakeman to officiate. Services are under the direction of Ladusau-Evans Funeral Home.
Coleene was born May 28, 1951 in Rogers, Arkansas to M.E. and Hildred Nadine (Guyll) McDaniel, and she died quietly in her home in the early morning hours of a winter day, Saturday, January 18, 2020.
The first child of M.E. and Hildred McDaniel, her life started in the Ozark mountains of northwest Arkansas. But her early days were most defined by the time she spent growing up in Garber, Oklahoma. After graduating school at Garber High, she married her high school sweetheart, Monte McHendry, in Fairmont, Oklahoma. Before the marriage ended, they moved to Enid and raised their only child, James McHendry.
She was a small business owner in her 20’s, owning and operating a full-service salon in a small A-frame building on Buffalo Street in Fairmont. After she ended her career as a beautician, in her forties, she took on the challenge of earning her Associates in Nursing Degree from Northern Oklahoma College. During her 20-year career as a nurse she often took difficult assignments, working with marginalized adults and children in need. She loved her work and being a nurse, only retiring when her health began to fail her.
She was content working on a craft project at home, going out to eat with friends, or playing card games at home, but she also loved to travel, she enjoyed many summer weeks in Seattle visiting her son and his family, she was hoping to feel well enough to visit her friend, Erma, in Monterrey soon. During the last years of her life, she spent a lot of time bird watching from her back porch with her dog Bella, joined by her friend Jean and others, who would stop by to say hello. She was loved by friends and family; her absence from this world will not go unnoticed.
Coleene is preceded in death by her parents, M.E. and Hildred Nadine and her infant brother, Gary. She is survived by her son, James T. McHendry, of Tulsa, OK and her sister, Brenda McDaniel of Garber, OK.
Memorials in Coleene’s name can be made to the Enid SPCA or the Zion Lutheran Church in Fairmont, Oklahoma with Ladusau-Evans Funeral Home serving as custodian of the funds.
Condolences may be made to www.ladusauevans.com.