Alice Lanora Mapel
Alice Lanora (Mackey) Mapel was born in the Berlin community near Sayre on Oct. 11, 1921.
Alice was the second of six children born to Frank and Nellie Mackey.
In 1928 the family moved to a farm near Durham and lived on the farm until she was a teenager.
When Alice was a teenager, the family moved to Kingfisher so that she and her siblings could attend Kingfisher schools.
Some of Alice’s best memories from childhood were playing on the farm and in the barn on the family farm with her siblings.
Alice graduated from Kingfisher High School in 1940 and married Elmo Mapel on Dec. 29, 1940.
Alice passed from this life and heard “well done good and faithful servant” from her Savior on the morning of Oct. 18, 2023, at the age of 102.
Elmo and Alice had four daughters - Joyce, Janis, Judy and Jeri - who all graduated from Kingfisher High School themselves.
During her lifetime, Alice left a legacy in many areas. She was a farmer’s wife, active member of First Baptist Church Kingfisher, worked at the school in the lunchroom and was an employee of Pioneer Telephone for many years before retiring from the phone company.
Alice was active in many clubs and loved volunteering at Meals on Wheels, including involving some of her grandchildren in that service.
These activities can help to describe what she did, however, who she was included so much more.
She loved working in her garden and brought her creativity and love for hospitality to everything she did. This included passing that creative hospitable spirit and talent down to her four daughters.
Her grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great- great- grandchildren brought untold joy to her life and she loved hearing everything going on in each of their lives.
She was always proud of each of them and loved having them come visit with her. Her spirit of hospitality shone through her love of cooking to the point that her four daughters nominated her as the best cook in Kingfisher County.
She often loved entering many of her projects which were the result of her creativity in the Kingfisher County Fair, earning many ribbons of various colors.
Alice was awarded the Centenarian Award for thriving to the age of 100, recognized by the State of Oklahoma.
In her 102 years she saw a lot of life, including the advent of the prevalence of cars and airplanes, the advent of television, cell phones, computers and many other events including the Great Depression, pandemics, wars and man walking on the moon.
In her lifetime she saw 21 different presidents of our country. Her life has spanned from the time when farming and travel was common, including her riding a pony to school as a child, all the way to current times when the internet is in every part of life.
Alice was preceded in death by her loving husband Elmo Mapel; sisters Hazel and Mary Jane; brother Carl; and brotherin- law Aubrey Collins.
She is survived by two sisters, Betty Satterfield and Jonell Crawford, and one sister-in-law, Jeanne Mackey.
She is also survived by her daughters Joyce Gammon and husband Dennis of Oklahoma City, Janis Gerken and husband Richard of South Fork, Colo., Judy Collins of Norman and Jeri Seefeldt and husband Alan of Stillwater. She is also survived by many loving grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren.
The family wishes to send a special thanks to the staff of Homestead Assisted Living and Russell-Murray Hospice who made a home and held special celebrations for Alice in her later years and an especially nice birthday party on her 102nd birthday recently.
The family requests that memorial donations be sent to Russell-Murray Hospice, Samaritan’s Purse and Gideon’s International in her honor.
Visitation for Alice will be 1 to 6 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 22 at Sanders Funeral Service Chapel.
Funeral services will be 10:30 a.m. Monday, Oct. 23, at the First Baptist Church in Kingfisher followed by burial at Kingfisher Cemetery under the direction of Sanders Funeral Service.