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A memorial celebration for Joanne Riney Bennett will be held Saturday, November 18, 6 pm at Disciples Christian Church, 5800 Douglas Lane in Bartlesville. Joanne passed away on October 10th, 2017. She was 93.
Joanne was born on August 11, 1924, to Arthur Herbert Riney and Margaret Ellen Lyons of Bartlesville. She was followed by two younger sisters: Janet (deceased) and Jeanne (of Tulsa, OK). She was raised in Bartlesville, where her father, A.H., was Vice President of Engineering for Phillips Petroleum and her mother, Margaret, was very active in community service.
She was a strong woman. She was the only girl in her Trigonometry class at Central. She managed a hay baling crew one summer during WW II when few men could be found. She said, "Growing up in a family of girls was marvelous in that you grew up unaware that there are things you can't do."
Joanne attended Smith College and University of Kansas. Her first job was with Phillips Petroleum, as a Spanish interpreter, in the International division.
On June 19, 1948, she married the love of her life, Richard (Dick) Jay Bennett in Bartlesville, Ok. They met in high school, and had a life-long love and respect for one another spanning 69 years. The couple lived in California for a few years but returned to Bartlesville to start their family.
Joanne decided to run for County Commissioner in 1972, filing for candidacy five minutes before the filing period ended. After a campaign that included six other candidates as a well as primary, run-off and general elections, she became the first regularly elected woman County Commissioner in the state of Oklahoma. (Other women had served after their husbands died in office.) She was a Republican when Democrats dominated in Oklahoma, and a woman when men dominated in Politics. At her first statewide meeting of County Commissioners, she was asked, "Whose secretary are you?" Despite this rocky start, she went on to serve for 18 years, including several as the chair of the Washington County Commissioners. Shortly after her election, a rural bridge collapsed in the county. After learning that most of the rural bridges in Washington County had been built around statehood to carry horses and wagons, Joanne began having nightmares about heavily loaded school busses filled with children plunging in to the river. In 1976, she spearheaded the creation of a bond issue to fund replacement or renovation of 35 bridges. Voters approved the bond issue, and Washington County became the first county in the state to initiate local funding for a comprehensive bridge-building program. Joanne was an advocate of women in politics as well as a strong proponent of women's rights in general. When asked what advice she had for young women today, she said, "Women should find a course within themselves that is true and disregard the outside world". Joanne retired in 1990 in order to spend more time with her grandchildren. She taught them all many things, including table manners, the importance of thank you notes, and that finding things boring was more a reflection of their own mind rather than a result of their circumstances. Joanne was proud of her Irish heritage. She made sure that each of her five grandchildren had an opportunity to visit Ireland with her. Despite her achievements in life, when asked what she was most proud of, she simply said, "I just think living on this planet is wonderful."
She is survived by her husband, Richard; her son Riney and his wife Starla and his daughters Laura and Clare; her daughter Meg Bennett; her son Kevin and his wife Cindy and their sons Dane, Forrest, and Grant; and her sister Jeanne Froeb.
In lieu of flowers, please make a donation in Joanne's behalf to your favorite charity.
Joanne was a supporter of the Oklahoma School for the Blind in Muskogee.
Published in Examiner-Enterprise from Nov. 12 to Dec. 11, 2017
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