WILSON-LITTLE FUNERAL HOME

PURCELL-NEWCASTLE, MCCLAIN CO, OK

(permission granted)
 

Thelma Mantooth, 89, of Purcell, died Thursday, June 1, at Purcell Municipal Hospital.

Services will be at 10 a.m. today at the First Baptist Church in Purcell with Dr. Dennis Hooper and the Rev. Bob Atterberry officiating.

Burial will follow at Hillside Cemetery. Arrangements are by Wilson-Little Funeral Home of Purcell.

Mrs. Mantooth was born Feb. 22, 1911, in Dibble, the oldest of eight children of Alfred Kerr and Mattie Young. She graduated from Washington High School in 1929, and then attended the University of Oklahoma where she received a lifetime teacher's certificate. In November of 1932, she married Albert Mantooth. After they were married they lived in several different towns before making Purcell their home. During World War II, she followed her husband to New Orleans and New York City, among other cities, until he was sent to Europe and eventually India by the Coast Guard. She began teaching school in Dibble and later taught at Purcell. After teaching school for a number of years, she worked with her husband in their various businesses in Purcell. She enjoyed teaching and taught Sunday school at the First Baptist Church in Purcell for nearly 50 years and had been a member since 1941. She enjoyed her family, her Lord and her church, gardening and traveling. She was very active in church committees and visitation programs, served as president of the WMU for many years and helped organize the clothing and food room at the church.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Alfred and Mattie Kerr; her husband, Albert Mantooth in 1988; sisters, Velma Shirley and Awana Walker; and brother.