Memorial Celebration of Life Saturday for Jean Wilson

Norma Jean Rhea Wilson was born Saturday, January 23, 1926 to George Elmer and Sarah Louise (Stalcup) Rhea in Howe, LeFlore County, Oklahoma. She passed at age 95 on Friday, March 19, 2021 in Coalgate, Oklahoma. A Memorial Celebration of Life will be held at Brown’s Funeral Chapel in Coalgate, Saturday, March 27, 2021 at 2:00 p.m.

Jean graduated from Kiowa (OK) High School in 1943, and her favorite activity was singing a cappella harmony in the Glee Club.

She grew up in Wardville, OK, and was best friends with her younger sister, Gwen Rhea. They spent many hours swimming in the pond during the summer months, batting snakes away when they got too close. Their older sister, Wilma, taught them to sing in harmony as she accompanied on piano, regularly entertaining family and friends. Their brother, Felmet, probably made it into the family entertainment, though not into the often-repeated stories.

Even before Wilma married Paul Seaborn Wilson on October 19, 1937 in McAlester, OK, little sister Jean had become acquainted with Paul’s younger brother William “Riley,” and eventually the romance began.

After Riley’s European tour of duty with the 100th Bomb Group, 8th Army Air Force, he returned to the states in May of 1944 and was stationed at Galveston Army Airfield. Jean rode by train from McAlester to Houston, TX, then took the bus to Galveston.

Jean married her sister’s brother-in-law, William Riley Wilson, June 24, 1944, in the First Lutheran Church in Galveston, TX. (Yes, the Rhea sisters married the Wilson brothers.) Riley scheduled the marriage between his training flights at the air base, and the “attendants” were the preacher’s wife and the cab driver.

After Galveston, they lived in Ardmore and McAlester where they started their family, and later they moved to Coalgate to stay. Their family grew to include four children, William “Bill” Riley Wilson, Jr., Deana Kay Wilson, Jack Jerome Wilson, and Marcy Jean Wilson, seven grandchildren, twenty-two greatgrandchildren, and seven great-great-grandchildren.

Jean was a wonderful homemaker and an expert seamstress, often making clothes for her daughters and draperies for the home, then continuing to make clothes for her grandchildren.

She was a member of First Baptist Church in Coalgate and lent her lovely alto voice to the choir for decades. She also participated in the Federated Music Club and the Band Boosters. In her younger years, she participated in Choir and Glee Club and played piano “by ear.” As an adult, she studied with Lavenia Stalder and became accomplished at reading music. She loved anything and everything to do with children and music, and supported all her children, especially with activities having to do with the Coalgate High School Band.

Most of all in life, she loved her family. She stayed in touch with extended family, and in younger days picked up Bill and Jahree’s kids from school on many occasions while they were working.

In addition to her husband, William Riley Wilson, she was preceded in death by her parents, George Elmer and Louise Rhea; brother, Felmet Stalcup Rhea; sisters, Wilma Inell Rhea Wilson and Mavis Gwendean “Gwen” Rhea Stovall; and her beloved son, Jack Jerome Wilson.

Jean’s faith in Jesus as her Savior saw her through the rough years of WWII, including when Riley was overseas in dangerous combat duty with the “Bloody Hundreth,” until he came safely home. Now her faith has carried her home from three decades of widowhood, missing her sweetheart, Riley, every day of her life. Truly, this was a love affair of the Greatest Generation.

The family wishes to thank the staff and caregivers of Ruth Wilson Hurley Manor for providing exemplary and compassionate care.

Any condolences, stories, remembrances, anecdotes can be left at Brown’s Funeral Service website: brownsfuneralserviceatokaok.com.

Expressions of sympathy in the form of monetary donations or gently used band instruments may be made in honor of Jean Wilson to the Coalgate High School Band, 2 W. Cedar, Coalgate, OK 74538. “Give the Band A Hand!”