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Jean Herndon Venable, 95, died after a long full life on Saturday, July 7, 2018 in Tulsa, OK.
Jean loved her family and was especially devoted to her children and grandchildren. She took great delight in traveling to see her extended family. When family came to visit her home, she delighted in preparing a home cooked dinner with fresh vegetables from her garden. After one of her famous desserts, there were highly competitive rounds of Hearts, Bridge, Rook, Crazy, or 42 Dominoes.
Jean was born in Kingsport, Tennessee to Charles T Herndon, Jr. and Adele Wheatley Herndon on August 16, 1922. She graduated from Dobyns-Bennett High School in 1940 and attended Virginia Intermont College in Bristol, VA for one year. After the war began, she attended Whitney School of Business in Kingsport and became a private secretary at Tennessee Eastman Corporation until her marriage to Charles Richard Venable, Jr. (Charley) on February 2, 1946.
Leaving her beloved Tennessee, she moved with her husband, small child and baby to Bartlesville, OK in May, 1951. While raising her family, she served in several organizations. She was a Past President of the Washington County Republican Women’s Club, the Cherokee Chapter of the U.D.C., and the Women of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church. In the 1960’s she was baptized into Christ at Limestone Church of Christ (later became Adam’s Boulevard Church of Christ) where she taught Sunday school. She and Charley volunteered and worked for 20 years in the prison ministry at the Dick Conner Correctional Center in Hominy, OK. She mailed Bible lessons to inmates, many of whom accepted Christ.
Jean and Charley both loved to play cards and to fish. She was an avid bridge player and belonged to several bridge clubs. She and Charley won several trophies playing duplicate bridge together. As a young mother, she caught a record sailfish when visiting her parents in Fort Lauderdale, FL.
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She is survived by her three children: Charles Richard Venable, III and his wife Katherine of Magee, MS; Pamela Jean Hunnicutt and her husband Larry Feeney of Bellingham, WA; and Adele Venable Baker of Tulsa, OK; two grandsons Mark Tyler Venable and his wife Amber with their sons Jaxon Eli and Asher Stone, and Jeffrey Austin Venable and his wife Jenny with their sons Tucker Keith and Tate Austin; and a niece and nephew and their families.
She was preceded in death by her parents and brother, Charles T Herndon, III and his wife Mary Gordon Herndon, and by her husband, Charley Venable.
Memorial contributions may be made to Hope Harbor Children’s Home, P O Box 1047, Claremore, OK 74017 or Magee Church of Christ, P O Box 505, Magee, MS 39111 where her son Richard preaches.
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