Leola Velma Webster

On the wings of bluebirds and butterflies, Leola V. Webster’s spirit, was met by angels in heaven and the loved ones who went before her on Monday, March 10, 2014. 
After 97 years on earth, her new mailing address is God, Glory Avenue, Heaven where she is playing dominoes with all her family under the big oak trees at her parent’s house outside Broken Bow, Oklahoma, where her father, Dallas Polk and her mother, Dionitia Cassandra Willingham raised her and their brood of 11 brothers and sisters.  She is the last Willingham of that generation to pass away.      
Up there, under the front yard big Oak tree, her eight brothers were playing dominoes, and whooping it up around the old card table, were: Romy, Bryan, Bruce, Dallas Polk Jr, Clyde Barker, Ledger Walton, Walter Colbert (Cobby), and Haskell Eugene (Hack) and her two sisters Lois Fay and Gladys Ford.     
At the table playing is her husband, and life partner of 47 years, Lee D. Webster, of Paoli, Oklahoma, who passed away in 1986, and her two living sons, Wayne A. Webster of Richardson, Texas, and James (Jimmy) Haskell Webster of Weatherford, Texas.   She leaves behind three nieces, Judy Souza, Kathy Albright, Patricia, and a nephew Jimmy Willingham, all originally from Santa Maria, California. 
And in Oklahoma, she leaves behind her sister in law, Pat Willingham, of Idabel, two nephews, Bruce Willingham and wife Gwen, of Idabel, and their children Christopher and Mark, nephew, Russell Willingham, wife Dana, of Broken Bow, and their son Michael.    Sister in law Mary Mauldin of Edmond Oklahoma also grieves her passing.    Not to leave out a very special person, who is not a blood relative, but an adopted daughter, and sister, is her wonderful caretaker of five years, Cinda Atkinson.   
Leola moved from Purcell, Oklahoma, to Weatherford, Texas, in 1998 to be closer to her two sons.    The first 8o years of her life were spent in Oklahoma where she taught school at Wayne and Norman.   Leaving Oklahoma friends was hard, but she quickly made new friends in Weatherford, with her daily walks, and in her churches.    
She had an unquenchable curiosity about God and his creation……….She was a member of Northside Baptist Church.  At one time or another she probably attended every church in Weatherford.    She went wherever the spirit called her, and she didn’t believe God asked you the church you attended, but looked into your heart.  
She was fascinated by birds, and butterflies that she raised for years.   At one time she had over 40 bluebird houses on the family farm in Paoli, Oklahoma, and recorded each house’s number of birds and broods.   Her goal was to repopulate the diminishing bluebird population.    Husband Lee D. made the bird houses and put them up for her…Each house location was carefully logged and monitored.  At her Weatherford residence butterfly bushes she held an annual Monarch butterfly migration convention when they came flying through.    She helped supply the Fort Worth Zoo with butterfly caterpillars so the school children could watch them change from an ugly caterpillar into a beautiful Monarch butterfly.  
She taught elementary school and high school business courses for 35 years in Oklahoma.  She was an avid painter, gardener, and went to Weatherford College at the age of 86 to study painting and art.  She obtained her masters degree from the University of Oklahoma.   Her son Jim had to get her off the roof at the age of 80 because she was fixing the shingles.  
She was an extraordinary woman who brought positive energy into our world on earth and I’m sure will be doing the same in heaven. 

A memorial service will be held at Galbreaith Pickard Funeral Home at 1pm Saturday, March 15, 2014.

Her ashes will be interred in Paoli, Oklahoma, alongside her precious Lee D., at 1pm March 22, and another at the Willingham family plot, on top of her mother, Dionitia, in Broken Bow cemetery at 1pm March 23.