Ella Mae Turner

Ella Mae Turner, 91, died on Thursday, October 3, 2024, at her beloved home in rural Pawnee, Oklahoma. She was born May 17, 1933, to Leslie John and Myrtle Anna (Peterson) Holdeman in Cleo Springs, Okla.

The oldest of six siblings, Ella Mae’s childhood was spent in various parts of central and north central Oklahoma. She attended the Olive Hill one-room schoolhouse in rural Pawnee before graduating from Pawnee High School in 1952. Ella Mae worked a short time at the Pawnee drugstore during which time she met the love of her life. She signed up for a lifetime of sass and affectionately being called “wormy” when she met Gerald Dee Turner after he and his father helped move her dad’s cattle from Pawnee to Perkins. They married on September 4, 1954, in Kingfisher, Okla., and moved to a 160-acre farm/ranch near the old Lone Jack School northwest of Pawnee. They spent the next 23 years there raising their five children.

While Gerald worked various jobs off the farm, Ella Mae was a stay-at-home mom and ranch wife where she spent her time corralling her five children, milking cows, cooking, raising chickens, gardening, and other ranch wife duties with love and care. In the summertime, you could even find her raking hay with an old Ford 8N tractor with only a sunshade to keep her cool.

In 1977, she left behind her old ringer washing machine and lack of running water when they built and moved into their current home (with an automatic washing machine) on 80 acres a few miles outside Pawnee. She wasn’t afraid of hard work and handled the day-to-day ranch financials, even taking an H&R Block course at age 52. Over the course of her life, she spent time as a Pawnee County Election precinct official and was part of the Sunshine Club. Ella Mae and Gerald were faithful partners in all they did until his passing in November 2018.

Ella Mae is survived by her children Pat Turner, Pawnee; Terry Turner (Debbie), Skedee, Okla.; Jane Imgarten (Tom), Red Rock, Okla.; and Lana Kincaid (Dennis), Nardin, Okla. Six grandchildren, Guy Turner, Skedee; Crystal [Turner] Drumm (Austin), Cleveland, Okla.; Wilton Imgarten (Becca), Red Rock; Jerri [Imgarten] Whitley (Brandon), Ness City, Kan.; Kayla [Kincaid] Adams (Jeremiah), Caddo, Okla.; and Kacy [Kincaid] Jackson (Jacob), Blackwell, Okla. She was also blessed with ten great grandchildren, Jackson and Johnathan Turner; Kinsley and Landon Imgarten; Charlie and Viola Drumm; Riggin, Tinley, and Dutton Adams; and Remi Jackson. She was preceded in death by her parents; husband, Gerald; a son, Dee; a brother, Gene; and sisters Elsie Fay, Anna Louise, Rhoda Jane, and Edna Ruth.

Funeral services are entrusted to Poteet Funeral Home in Pawnee, Oklahoma. Visitation will be Friday, October 11, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., at the funeral home (600 Illinois Street, Pawnee). Graveside services will be at 10 a.m., on Saturday, October 12, at Highland Cemetery in Pawnee, Oklahoma (north of Pawnee on Highway 18).