Alma Eula Grissom

Alma Eula Burkes was born on April 20, 1913, at Wetumka, Oklahoma, and passed away on May 10, 2014, at her home in Wynnewood at the age of 101. She was the 8th and final child of Andrew Jackson Burkes and Eulalie (McRae) Burkes. She graduated from the 8th grade at Pleasant Ridge School, then attended two years at Wetumka High School, before moving to the little community of Fairview, southwest of Wetumka, where she graduated from high school in 1931. She was baptized during a gospel meeting at the Church of Christ in Holdenville, Oklahoma, when she was sixteen years old. She remained a faithful member of the Church of Christ for the rest of her life. On October 29, 1939 she married Elba R. Grissom. In 1942, they bought an 80-acre farm and were living there when their first child, Michael Andrew, was born in 1945. In 1946, they moved to Wynnewood, where Elba had been hauling oil into and out of the refinery. In 1948, another son, Patrick Elba, was born in the old hospital downtown. Alma was a bookkeeper for Grissom Brothers Transports until it was sold in 1963. After the sale, she stayed on for another year to help the new owners learn how to keep the books and do the payroll. In 1968, Alma and Elba moved to Long Beach, California, where Elba became the foreman of McDonell-Douglas Aircraft Company and Alma went to work for the State of California in a day care school. In 1977, they both retired and moved back into their home in Wynnewood - the same home they had owned since 1951. Alma was preceded in death by her parents, her husband, one brother Clyde Alexander Burkes, and all seven of her sisters Queenie Verlie Burkes, Cecil Hope Chastain, Gladys Iona Owen, Lois Norma Burrus, Hazel Adeline Dunn, and Mattie Vida Sparks. She is survived by two sons Michael Andrew Grissom of Wynnewood, OK, and Patrick Elba Grissom of Choctaw, OK, several cousins, and a host of nieces and nephews. Services will be held at the Church of Christ in Wynnewood, OK on Tuesday May 13, 2014 at 1:00 PM with burial following at Wetumka Cemetery in Wetumka, OK. Services are under the direction of DeArman Funeral Home of Wynnewood, OK.

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Alma Eula Grissom

April 20, 1913 - May 10, 2014