Shirley Lorraine Stratton

Shirley Stratton, age 88, passed away on Friday, October 5, 2012 at the Integris Hospice House in Oklahoma City. Shirley was born to John and Beatrice (Fish) Berggren on March 2, 1924, in Aurora, Nebraska. She attended school in Aurora and received her teaching certificate from the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, NE. She taught 1st through 8th grade in a rural one-room school house near Aurora prior to starting a family. She was the first rural school teacher to become a member of the Alpha Delta Kappa Teachers Honorary Sorority. Shirley’s passion was gardening and she spent most of her days tending her many flower gardens. She was a self-taught master gardener and landscape artist and a member of the Aurora Garden Club. She also enjoyed flower arranging and after winning many awards was regularly asked to be a judge at various county fairs. She was a 4-H Leader teaching sewing, cooking and crafting. She added her artistic flair to everything she touched. After raising her three children on a farm in Phillips, NE she worked as a Nursing Assistant in the Grand Island Veterans Home. Following her retirement, she and husband Jack lived in the beautiful Rocky Mountains near Gunnison in Ohio City, CO during the spring and summer months. They traveled with their travel home to Port Aransas, TX for the fall and winter months where she enjoyed watching birds at the beach while Jack fished in the Gulf of Mexico. Shirley was preceded in death by her parents, and sister, Joan Hecht. She is survived by her husband Jack Stratton of Lexington, OK; brother, Warren (Gretchen) Berggren of Golden, CO; sister, Barbara (Dick) Mohrbacher of Maple Glen, PA; sister, Janet (Warren) Jones of Anchorage, AK; children: Lynn (Mary) Eaton of Bemidji, MN; David (Mary) Eaton of Antelope, CA; Laura and (Charles) Focht of Lincoln, NE; four grandchildren and one grandchild. Memorial Service: 3 p.m. Friday, October 19, 2012 in the Chapel of St. Mary at All Souls Episcopal Church, 6400 N Pennsylvania Avenue, Oklahoma City, OK. Condolences can be sent to the family at Winans Funeral Home, Maysville, OK at www.winansfuneralhome.com