Graveside services for Oleta Sue Elmore Ross are 2:00 p.m. Wednesday, April 2, 2025 at Rosedale Cemetery.
When Oleta Sue Elmore was born on 15 Oct 1930 in Oklahoma City, USA, her father, Irven Sisero was 26, and her mother, Beulah Lena was 22. She married Robert Joseph Ross on 19 December 1947, in Ada, Oklahoma. They had two children during their marriage, Linda Sue and William Robert. She died on 27 March 2025, in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma, at the age of 94. Sue lived in the Chickasaw Nation capital. Her paternal Elmore clan was Irish American, and her maternal Colbert clan was Scot Chickasaw/Choctaw.
Sue was the second daughter of Irven and Beulah who lived with Beulah's parents, Bejamin Franklin and Ella Lena Correll Colbert. Her sister, Irvena “Tootles” was already two years old. Frank operated a small grocery store/gas station which had housing attached to the back. Irven owned and operated three dump trucks with his brothers during the Great Depression and helped build Wintersmith Park among other WPA projects while raising three daughters. Later, a mentor taught Irven to weld with acetylene and put him to work in the booming oil field of nearby Fittstown. When Sue was four years old, her sister, Frankie Lou, was born. The family briefly lived in Ardmore in 1935. Tootles and Sue rode a bus to Byng schools before attending Ada schools. The children enjoyed swimming in Byrd’s Mill Spring between Ada and Stonewall.
About 1938, the Elmore’s moved to 805 E. Gardena Street in Ada. Soon, Irven purchased an adjacent lot and skidded a three-room house onto it for the Colberts. Every time a tornado threatened, Irven and Beulah took the family to the storm cellar. Irven built a 'vegetable canning kitchen' on the concrete roof of the cellar with cabinet, sink, and running water and Sue helped her mother and sisters harvest the garden. There was a barn on the back lot with horses, chickens, cows, and hogs. The family butchered and preserved a hog each winter, churned milk into butter and made cottage cheese. They sold eggs and garden vegetables to pay for school supplies and lunch money. Sue recalled how fond her mother Beulah was of her father Frank Colbert, a gentle hardworking man who prepared neighbors' gardens with a horse and plow. He always grew a large garden on his property. He taught the grandchildren to ride bikes, climb trees, ride horses, and roller skate. He whittled little puppets and made them dance and dangle. “Granny Lena Colbert loved to play checkers and prided herself on being the family's champion competitor. Sue’s route from her home on Gardenia to the Ada High School passed by the drugstore and her grandparents’ home on 8th Street. Sometimes she would shave her blind “Granddad” Nimrod Elmore.
Sue remembered Pearl Harbor in1941 when she was 11 years old. She was attending Horace Mann School (a training school for teachers at East Central College, now East Central University). She remembered seeing young servicemen at East Central.
Sue met Bob Ross through a neighbor, David Burris, who married one of Sue's girlfriends. Bob had attended Ada schools and served in the U.S. Navy. His father was a construction worker. Bob returned from the Navy in 1946 or 1947. He would pick Sue up from high school in his car. In 1947, a brother, Roy Ellard, was born at Valley View Hospital in Ada. Oleta Sue Elmore married Robert Joseph Ross in Ada, Oklahoma, on 19 December 1947, when she was 17 years old. Sue graduated from Ada High School in 1948 before the Elmore family moved to Union Valley, Pontotoc, OK. Sue went to several high school reunions and kept in touch with her classmates. Ada High had many successful football and basketball teams. They used East Central's football field. Sue was in the "Contahoma" cheering club.
Daughter Linda Sue was born on 3 December 1948, in Ada, Oklahoma. Son William Robert was born on 21 September 1952, in Ada. In 1959, the Rosses moved into a newly constructed house on 29th Street in Latta, a small community southwest of Ada. Sue took a job at Arkla Gas Co. in Ada in 1960 and worked there for 30 years before retiring in 1990. After two weeks of retirement, she went to work for the Chickasaw Nation and worked another 20 years. Her husband, Bob Ross, passed away on 17 May 1989, in Ada at the age of 63. They had been married 41 years. Sue’s father, Irven, passed away on 10 September 1994, in Ada, at the age of 94. Her mother, Beulah, passed away on 8 September 1997 in Ada, at the age of 89. Sue’s sisters, Tootles and Lou, died on 9 July 2018 and 10 January 2023, respectively.
Sue and her sisters took several trips to Branson, MO, attending various music shows and shopping. In 2002, Nephew Danny Alford drove "The Sisters" through Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, to Las Vegas NV. They visited their cousins, Sherry and Bobby Johnston, in Gilbert, AZ, where Sherry was reared by her Uncle Ellard and Aunt Beulah Elmore. Sue remembered many years ago when Uncle Ellard and Aunt Beulah with their five children packed up and headed to Globe, AZ, in a dump truck to work in the mines. They never returned to Oklahoma, but Sherry and Bobby visited Ada.
One of Sue’s favorite pastimes, The McSwain Theater, provided excellent talent. The theater was purchased and renovated by Sue's cousin by marriage, Paul Alford, and managed by his niece, J. L. Stilwell and her cousin, Debbie Allen, before it was purchased by the Chickasaw Nation. “The Sisters” also enjoyed country music at Mary McDonald's Music Barn in Stonewall and shows at the American Legion in Stratford, OK. She also enjoyed casinos in the area.
Sue enjoyed living in the Chickasaw Nation as a senior adult. Her activities included swimming and aerobics at the Wellness Center and social activities at the Chickasaw Senior Site where she participated in games, food, and seasonal parties. She made new friends and traveled occasionally on the 1st class "Unconquerable and Unconquered" Chickasaw tour bus.
After several years of loving elder care by her daughter, Linda, in Ada, Oleta Sue Elmore Ross died 28 March 2025 at the home of her grandson Robert’s family in Pauls Valley, OK, under the loving care of Tonya and Great Granddaughter Bethany Rutledge.
Sue is remembered as a joyful lady, quick to smile, and who entertained her grandchildren by singing the theme to the sitcom “All in the Family” in the voice of Edith Bunker (Jean Stapleton).
Criswell Funeral Home, Ada
