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Jackie Lou Streck, of Marshall, died on June 30, 2021, at her assisted living home in Edmond. She was 76.
Jackie was born in Enid on Aug. 26, 1944, to Jack and Charline (Cassiday) Beeby. She grew up on the family wheat and cattle farm in Marshall.
She barely stood 5-foot-2 but held her own in a male-dominated household with three brothers. She helped raise her youngest brother, Craig, who was 10 years her junior. When she was a teenager — whip-smart, funny and pretty — her parents made little Craig tag along when she went "to town" to ward off attention from boys.
Jackie graduated as valedictorian of Marshall High School in 1962, then attended Enid Business College.
In October 1964, Jackie went on a double date to the movie theater with a handsome farm boy from Carrier named James "Jim" Streck. He proposed on Valentine's Day, and they were married on her 21st birthday, Aug. 26, 1965, at her parents' house in Marshall.
They were married 55 years and raised four children: Connie, Shelli, Todd and Misty.
Jackie was a masterful cook who prepared three meals a day. She was known for her fried chicken that left flour all over her black slacks, for her deviled eggs and potato salad, her goulash, her sauerkraut and wieners, her buttery mashed potatoes, and her homemade pizza.
In the summers, the Streck family did custom harvesting, traveling the country to cut wheat, milo, sunflower, and barley. Jackie loaded her car daily with full, hot meals and iced tea for all the farm hands.
During one harvest, Jackie was getting ready to cook in a travel trailer and turned on the propane stove. Its pilot light was unlit, and she left the stove on as she searched for matches. She struck one, and it blew up, sending her flying through the closed front door. True to form, she didn't complain and got right back to work.
"She dusted herself off, and went back in and cooked a meal," said her son, Todd. "The stove was lit. Eyebrows were gone."
At Jim's diesel mechanic shop in Marshall, she was the office manager, secretary, purchaser of combine parts, and, when needed, assistant mechanic. She was so tough that after breaking her arm at the shop, she drove herself to the hospital without shedding a tear.
She was as generous as she was hard-working. Money was tight, but she made sure her kids had good Christmases. She never forgot birthdays and anniversaries of extended family and friends.
Jackie had a loud, joyous laugh that shook her whole body. She was a top-notch gossip who spent hours at the Marshall Post Office getting all the good stories.
She loved Elvis Presley, old hymns, and Coke. She didn't like to be bothered when she was watching her "stories" — soap operas "The Young and the Restless," "Guiding Light" and "The Bold and the Beautiful."
Jackie loved driving the family station wagon and always had a darker tan on her left arm, which she draped out the open window. She could eat a Taco Bell taco while driving full-speed, without dropping a bite.
She was almost always barefoot — in the snow, in Jim's shop, in a stubble field where wheat had been cut. Despite her Oklahoma upbringing, she was always petrified of tornadoes and bolted into the basement as soon as the clouds got too dark.
She was superstitious, too. She turned around when she came across a black cat, always ate black-eyed peas for the new year, and, if she spilled a salt shaker, quickly tossed salt over her left shoulder.
Jackie loved singing in church, off-key but enthusiastic. She and a cousin often sang at funerals and joked that people were "dying to hear us sing." She had a sailor's vocabulary, prompting her oldest granddaughter, Hailey, to sneak behind her as a child, yelling, "I heard that!" every time she heard Jackie cuss.
Jackie doted on her grandchildren, always keeping Fruity Pebbles on hand and cartoons on TV.
Jackie is preceded in death by both of her parents and by her husband, Jim, who died in November.
She is survived by daughter Connie Thompson, of Anadarko; daughter Shelli Branson and her husband, Jason, of Crescent; son Todd Streck and wife, Crystal, of Marshall; and daughter Misty Emmons and her husband, Gary, of Chandler.
She also is survived by eight grandchildren: Hailey Branson-Potts and her husband, Mark Potts, of Torrance, Calif.; Corey Branson and his wife, Alberta, of Guthrie; Ashley Jenson and her husband, Chris, of Norman; Cassiday Thompson, of Norman; Hunter Wood and her husband, Kyle, of Crescent; Harley Streck, of Marshall; and Cooper and Remington Emmons, of Chandler.
She leaves behind one great-grandson, Charlie Potts, of Torrance, Calif.
Jackie also is survived by brother Gary Beeby and his wife, Dee Ann, of Stillwater; brother Dwayne Beeby and his wife, Mary Ann, of Marshall; brother Craig Beeby and his wife, Leila, of Stillwater; and many nieces and nephews.
The family will gather privately to celebrate Jackie's life.
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