Private Family Graveside services for Wanda C. (Sharver) Ballard, formerly of Ada were held at the Vamoosa Cemetery, Rev. Terry Ballard officiating.
Mrs. Ballard passed in Tonkawa on June 29, 2022. She was born August 6, 1935 in Spiro, Oklahoma to W. C. (Cosmo) Sharver and Ola Mae Claunch.
She grew up in Snyder, OK and began traveling and singing professionally with her father (W. C.) and her brother, Quennion in the Sharver Trio at an early age. She attended Stamps-Baxter Music School in Dallas, TX where she wrote songs and performed them with her brother, Quennion. Several were published in the Stamps-Baxter songbooks which were and still are used at Singing Conventions around the nation. Mrs. Ballard’s clear voice made her a natural on radio where she became an announcer. She attended East Central State College and worked as an announcer for KADA in the 1950s while getting her education, working with Dr. C. C. Morris of the First Baptist Church of Ada and the true roots and heritage of KADA AM Radio, presenting the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Mrs. Ballard met her husband, Jack, at the Stamps-Baxter School of Music in Dallas, TX in 1953 and they were married in Ada at the First Assembly of God Church July 16, 1954. He joined the then Sharver Quartet which grew into the Singing Sharver Family with whom she continued to sing for over 50 years as well as the Singing Ballard Family. Wanda’s beautifully clear alto voice is still heard on The Gospel Station today.
Mrs. Ballard worked 45 years for People’s Electric Cooperative in Ada, OK as an executive secretary for the Manager while maintaining home and raising children. Her interests were always music or Christmas and Easter related and she spent countless hours in her music room playing, singing and praising God and collecting Christmas and Easter decorations. She was a deep prayer warrior and was a rock of stability for her family and a private counselor of faith to many. It was her devoted and very strong faith that resonates today in her children. She was a helpmate to her husband working in the music ministry at Faith Chapel in Wewoka, OK and Pearson Baptist Church in Pearson, OK, a member of Union Valley Baptist Church in Ada, OK and a huge supporter of The Gospel Station. For the past several years she has been a member of the First Baptist Church with her son, Terry, as her Pastor.
Mrs. Ballard served as the Secretary of Oklahoma All-Night Singing Association for 25 years and was a member of the acting cast of Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge Easter Sunrise Service for many years with her family. Wanda’s message with her life was consistent and simple: “Jesus is the way, the truth and the life and no man comes to the Father without coming through Him and the choice you make about Jesus matters forever.”
Survivors include daughter, Rev. Pamela Sorensen (David); son, Rev. Terry Jack Ballard (Cathy); grandchildren, Christopher Jackson and Brooklyn Ballard; Gil Grycman (Hadassa), great-grandchildren Elisheva and Dvora Grycman, Brother-in-Law James Ballard , Sister-in-laws Jorean and Barbara Ballard and a multitude of nieces and nephews.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Rev Jackson W. Ballard of Ada, OK, parents, W. C. (Cosmo) Sharver of Konawa, OK and Ola Mae Claunch Sharver of Kingfisher, OK; sister, Jaqueta Laverne Sharver of Spiro, OK, brother, Quennion Fletcher Sharver of Konawa, OK, Brothers and sisters-in-law, Rena Ruth (Adams) Sharver of Konawa, OK, LC and Marjorie Ballard of Las Cruces, NM, Joann A. Ballard, Rose Ballard, Leslie Ballard of Thatcher, AZ, S. Fred Ballard of Morenci, AZ.
Criswell Funeral Home, Ada
