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MUSKOGEE, Okla. - Rev. Diana June Cox Crawford, 72, passed from this life on July 17, 2020. Rev. Crawford served as senior pastor of First United Methodist Church in Muskogee from 2002 to 2007.
Although Rev. Crawford was an acclaimed leader in the United Methodist conference for 21 years, an outstanding orator and preacher, and a breaker of barriers as the first woman minister at all five of her appointments, her joy and her purpose came from the people she served as their cherished pastor. At the end of her life, her words were not about the awards she won or the churches she led, but about the babies she baptized, the precious couples she married, and, above all, those whose hands she held as they passed into the next life and their families who she counseled in their grief. For she knew them all. That was her gift: the kind of mind who knows and keeps close the details of her flock's lives. She knew the names of their grandchildren, the people they lost, their surgeries, their birthdays. She cried with them and celebrated with them. And she always remembered, just as we will always remember her.
Rev. Crawford was born and raised in Bixby, Okla. to Helen and Virgil Cox. She graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a degree in elementary education; thereafter, teaching in Noble and then Bixby, Okla. She often said "God woos your soul for the whole of your life." And the same was true for her. Having been raised in the United Methodist Church, and knowing from an early age that she is a beloved child of God, Rev. Crawford entered Phillips Theological Seminary in 1988. She graduated magna cum laude in 1992 with a Master of Divinity degree. While in seminary, Rev. Crawford served at Southern Hills United Methodist Church in Tulsa 1989-90, then Mounds United Methodist Church 1990-92. She was awarded many honors at Phillips, including the Outstanding Methodist Seminarian and Outstanding Senior Sermon awards.
Rev. Crawford was ordained Deacon in the Oklahoma United Methodist Church Conference in 1992, and in 1995 was ordained Elder in the Oklahoma Conference. She served as lead pastor of Inola United Methodist Church from 1992 to 1997; Idabel United Methodist Church from 1997 to 2002; First United Methodist Church in Muskogee from 2002 to 2007, and Wesley United Methodist Church in Oklahoma City in 2007. She retired from ministry in 2013.
During her ministerial career, she served on the Oklahoma Conference of the United Methodist Church Board of Ordained Ministry, Board of Ministry, Board of Education, Board of Trustees at Oklahoma City University and was chair of the Episcopsy Committee. Under her leadership her congregations supported many summer youth reading programs, as well as vacation Bible schools, youth ministries and food insecurity programs. For several summers, Rev. Crawford served as dean of youth at her beloved Camp Egan in Tahlequah, Okla.
Rev. Crawford and her husband, Bob, retired to a home they designed and built on a tree-covered hill overlooking the Arkansas River Valley just outside Muskogee. They celebrated their 35th anniversary last October. Rev. Crawford spent her retirement doing the things she loved such as reading and gardening. But her favorite retirement "job" was being "Mimi" to Sophie, Anna and Sidney; her grandchildren. They adored their Mimi and loved to spend time with her. She and Bob also loved to travel, visiting 39 states and Canada, England and France.
Rev. Crawford is survived by her husband Bob and by daughters Laura Garforth and her husband Sam, Ellen Holman and her husband Joe and son Zachary Crawford; grandchildren Sophie, Anna and Sidney; mother Helen Cox; sister Patricia Cox Reif; and her brother Mike Cox. Services will be at St. Paul United Methodist Church in Muskogee on Friday, July 24 at 11:00 am. Social distancing precautions will be taken and masks are required. Rev. Crawford requested in lieu of flowers any memorium be made in her name to the Camp Egan Project Fund, Methodist Camp Office, 1501 NW 24th Street, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73106.
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