Mary Ann Wiewel
Mary Ann Wiewel, 81, passed away peacefully on Aug. 17, 2023, with family by her side.
She was born Feb. 13, 1942, in San Antonio, Texas, the oldest of six children to U.S. Army Major Buford Arms and Mary Kathern Peeper.
ShewasraisedinOkarche and graduated from Holy Trinity Catholic School where she loved playing basketball and cheerleading with her biggest cheerleader in life and sister, “Susie.”
The Arms girls dominated the court and were crowned as basketball queen their senior years.
Mary Ann and some of her closest friends attended nursing school at St. Anthony’s in Oklahoma City.
After graduating as a Registered Nurse, she worked at Kingfisher Regional Hospital and then began a long career at Baptist Hospital, now Integris Health, as a OBGYN nurse where she retired after 40-plus years.
She loved her career and her nursing friends, with whom she would travel with and had many “get togethers.” She enjoyed mentoring nurses and seeing them develop their confidence and love of nursing.
Mary Ann married the love of her life and high school sweetheart, Andy Wiewel.
They had three children, Jim, Matt and Jill, and lived on the family farm where they raised the third generation of Wiewels on the home place.
They farmed wheat and raised cattle on the land.
Mary Ann made the best homemade “meat and potatoes” meals and sewed matching outfits for the boys when they were little.
She would attend the boys’ basketball and baseball games and gave Jill her love of theatre and enjoyed going to many plays together.
She taught herself oil painting early on, painting anything from landscapes to nursery themed pictures for her newly-born nieces and nephews.
After she retired, she began painting again after an inspirational trip to Russia to recreate the beautiful icons we now enjoy.
Mary Ann was able to travel all over the U.S. and the world with her girlfriends, going to places such as Italy, London, Switzerland, Belgium, Sweden, Austria, Holland and Germany and has seen the Pope six times.
They would always go to Mass wherever they went and visited over 100 churches. She enjoyed going “antiquing,” frequenting casinos and the horse track, making a memorable trip twice to the Kentucky Derby and to the Breeders’ Cup.
After Andy’s passing in 1996, she continued living on the farm and working at Integris and found time for fun and helping with grandchildren Jessica, Taylor, Jared and Johnny, going to their school and athletic events.
She loved traveling and going to OU women’s basketball games and having Sunday evening dinner at “Uncle John’s” with the Baustert family.
Mary Ann had a zest for life and lived it to the fullest. She loved a lot of people and did everything on her bucket list from land, sea and sky, including going up in a hot air balloon to going down in a submarine.
“I’ve had a great life!” she’d proclaim.
She is survived by her son Jim (Pam) Wiewel and daughter Jill (Greg) Hazeldine; granddaughters Jessica (Austin) Wilkes and Taylor Wiewel, Leslie Wiewel-Manning; and grandsons Jared and Johnny Hazeldine; brothers David (Nancy) Arms, Tom (Sherri) Arms and Steve (Jenny) Arms; and many nieces and nephews.
She was preceded in death by her parents, husband Andy Wiewel, son Matt Wiewel and sisters Susan Baustert and Vicki McHone.
A vigil will be held at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 23, and the funeral service at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 24.
Both will be held at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Okarche.
Flowers and donations can be made to the church.