Elmwood Cemetery

Woodward, Woodward County, Oklahoma

© Anderson Burris Funeral Home
Submitted by: Jo Aguirre

Ellen "Jane" Drake Bender

March 14, 1937 ~ October 29, 2022

The funeral service for Ellen "Jane" Bender, age 85, of Enid, will be 10:00 am Thursday, November 3, 2022, at Anderson-Burris Funeral Home Chapel with Pastor Dwayne Schroeder officiating. Burial will follow in Elmwood Cemetery, Woodward, Oklahoma under the direction of Anderson-Burris Funeral Home.

Jane Bender passed away on October 29, 2022, in Enid, Oklahoma after a 24-year-long battle with Parkinson's disease. She was born March 14, 1937, in Shattuck, Oklahoma to Ralph and Emma Drake. She attended grade school in Arnett and Woodward and attended middle school and high school in Gage, Oklahoma where she graduated. She was awarded a full scholarship to Northwestern Oklahoma University in Alva, because of her outstanding grades, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Home Economics. Jane spent a few years working in Woodward for an insurance company before a good friend introduced her to Joseph Bender. They married in 1964 in Woodward, Oklahoma, and soon ventured out west to Apple Valley, California for better career opportunities, which they found. Jane worked at Continental Telephone Company (later known as Contel, then Verizon) as Executive Assistant to the Director of Engineering. Joe's career path led them to Big Pine, California in 1972, where she stayed home with their only child, Jody, then to Washington state in 1981. Joe and Jane returned to Oklahoma in 1991 to live out their retirement years; first in Broken Arrow, then in Enid (1994 to present).

Jane enjoyed participating in Lutheran Women's Missionary League, music, traveling, sewing, singing in the church choir, playing piano, caring for her family, and knowing her grandchildren. Her kind and quiet ways, along with her dry wit and sense of humor were endearing to those who knew and loved her and she will be dearly missed.

She is survived by her husband of 58 years, Joseph "Joe" Bender; daughter, Jody (Stephan) Vogt of Enid; grandchildren, Austin Vogt of Oklahoma City and Autumn Vogt, currently serving in the armed forces; her faithful Woodward County family: Susan Moyer (niece), Patti Vasquez (niece), Tom and Pat Bender (in-laws), who continued to demonstrate love and care throughout her illness. She is also survived by numerous nieces, nephews, and cousins whom she cherished.

The family would like to extend a special thanks to Redeemer Lutheran Church for their unwavering show of love and spiritual care to Jane and to Golden Oaks Skilled Nursing staff for the love and care they provided Jane and her family over the past five years."This is just adios and not goodbye "-we'll see you "somewhere over the rainbow!"

Memorials may be made through Anderson-Burris to Redeemer Lutheran Church's Lutheran Women's Missionary League (LWML).

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