Mary Alice Ward

Funeral Service
2pm Saturday, February 23, 2019
Christ Family Church
1400 NW 12th Street
Moore, Oklahoma

Mary Alice Ward was born Mary Alice Hall in Greenville Texas in 1924. A happy child, she was nick named “Sing” as family often told stories of her standing on an overturned washtub singing to anyone nearby. Soon she found her childhood cast into the teeth of the Great Depression The family of four boys and four girls found themselves traveling from the Rio Grand River in the south to Missouri in the north stopping for opportunities to pick cotton and earn income for the family. Mary Alice beginning at age five, found herself with the rest of the family in the fields pulling cotton bowls from daylight to dark for ten cents a day, hands bleeding she went to bed and awakened the next day on the road to the next cotton field. From the experience mom learned the value of hard work and family cohesiveness.

By the end of the depression the family found themselves in Oklahoma City, all of the children were soon to find work or joining in the fight in World War II. Mary Alice found work with the State of Oklahoma.  She found work in a previously male dominated field at Humpty Dumpty and met her future husband Aaron Ward in 1942 and they married in 1943 before he joined they navy and shipped overseas.  After the war she raised six children through difficult times.  Mary Alice taught her children “virtue abides in those who are able and willing to work”.

Aaron passed away and her adult children had left home to find their way into the world.  Mary Alice then began work as a switchboard operator for Oklahoma County.  Upon retirement she traveled extensively with her daughters and to visit her sons who lived out of state.  She supported the Army National Guard by making baked goods and receiving recognition for her many years of service to our service men and women.  She also gifted many hand embroidered quilts to children, grandchildren and others. 

Mary Alice is survived by six children all of Oklahoma; Wayne Ward, Renay Hammer, Gary Ward, Linda Ward-Taremi, Denise Ross and Karon Sharp.  She is also survived by her sister Ora Nixon of Texas.  There are twelve of fifteen grandchildren living and numerous great grandchildren.