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© Cooper Funeral Home
Reprinted with permission
Submitted by: Terry Dudley
Fern (McCray) York, 83, of Tecumseh, Oklahoma passed away Thursday, December 10, 2020 in Lawton, Oklahoma. She was born September 28, 1937 to Alex and Bessie (Thorne) McCray in Piedmont, Oklahoma. Fern was raised in Piedmont, Oklahoma until the family moved to Anaheim, California. She graduated with the class of 1955 from Anaheim High School in California.
Fern met her future husband, Clelland “Dee” York while she was attending high school and he was in the U.S. Marine Corps and stationed in Anaheim. He would pick her up at high school for lunch, which she said made all the girls jealous, being picked up for lunch by a man in uniform. Dee passed the brothers test and they were married on July 2, 1956 in Yuma, Arizona. They lived throughout southern California, Hawaii, and back to southern California, before settling in Tecumseh in 1973 and has since lived here.
Fern was a homemaker and devoted wife, mother and grandmother. In her early years in California she worked at Knott’s Berry Farm and while her children were young she had an ironing service.
She loved helping others and enjoyed crocheting caps, hats and blankets. Her latest project was crocheting caps for newborns. Fern’s greatest passion was her children and grandchildren.
She was preceded in death by her beloved husband of 60 years, Dee York on October 3, 2016; her parents, Alex and Bessie McCray; 4 brothers, Alva “Jr.”, Paul, Lyman and Lonnie McCray; and 2 sisters, Anna Jelensky and Daisy Stine.
Those left to cherish her memory are daughter and son-in-law, Ellen and Richard Standridge of Shawnee, OK; son and daughter-in-law, Lee and Nealeis York of Choctaw, OK; 5 grandchildren, Amy McMahan, Jamy and Matt Hamilton, Michael York, Samuel and Rae York and Abby York; 3 great-grandchildren, Nolan Hamilton, Matilda Hamilton and Hollis Hamilton; brother and sister-in-law, Joe and Linda McCray of Buchanan Dam, TX; and other extended family and friends.
Visitation will be from 1:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., Sunday, December 13, 2020 at Cooper Funeral Home and continue until service time. Service will be 2:00 p.m., Monday, December 14, 2020 at Cooper Funeral Home Chapel with Scott Schooler, Immanuel Baptist Church officiating. Burial will follow at Tecumseh Cemetery under the direction of Cooper Funeral Home of Tecumseh. Please join the celebration of Fern’s life through Cooper Funeral Home’s Facebook page for live streaming of the service.