Published: September 01, 2009 11:05 am      

FERN DUNHAM

DURANT — Funeral services for Elsie Fern Dunham, 98, Durant, will be 3 p.m. Tuesday Sept. 1, 2009, at First Baptist Church in Durant. The Rev. James Robinson, pastor of First Baptist Church, Durant, will officiate. Dr. Mark Shook, pastor of Community of Faith Church, Houston, Texas, will deliver the message.

Mrs. Dunham was a long time resident of Durant having moved to there in 1956. She was born in Electra, Texas, on Aug. 21, 1911, to Charles and Alma Wallace. She died Saturday, Aug. 29, 2009, n Durant.

In 1917, the family moved to a farm near Cliff, Okla., where Mrs. Dunham spent her early childhood. In 1924, the family moved to Aylesworth, Okla., where Mrs. Dunham attended high school.

She married Archie Franklin Dunham on her birthday in 1932 and lived in several southern Oklahoma towns before moving to Ada in 1943. During World War II, Mrs. Dunham achieved her childhood dream of becoming a nurse when she volunteered to be a “Gray Lady” working as a caregiver at Valley View Hospital in Ada. When she moved to Durant in 1956, she became a nurse’s aide at Bryan Memorial Hospital. After the death of her husband in August 1963, she received an “over age 50” exemption to attend Nursing School in Sherman, Texas, and became a Licensed Practical Nurse. She continued working as a LPN at Bryan Memorial Hospital for another 25 year before “retiring” in the late 1980s.

In Ada, Mrs. Dunham taught Sunday School, Training Union, Sunbeams and Vacation Bible School. In Durant, she taught a Ladies Bible Class at First Baptist Church until she was nearly 95 years old.

Mrs. Dunham was preceded in death by her husband Archie F. Dunham and her first child, John H. Dunham, who died at birth.

Survivors include two sons, Archie W. Dunham and wife Linda of Houston, Texas, and Phillip E. Dunham and wife Brenda of Independence, Mo.; grandchildren Steve Dunham and wife Ronda of Long Beach, Calif., Laura Shook and husband Mark of Houston, Texas, Cary Dunham and wife Denise of Houston, Texas, John Dunham and wife Susan of Lee’s Summit, Mo., Mary Harris and husband David of Indianapolis, Ind., and Mark Dunham and wife Meredith of Whitehouse, Tenn.; great-grandchildren Christopher and wife Jaime, David and wife Sydneyann, Sarah, Eric, Ashley, Sydney, Chandler, Bryce, Cole, Dawson, Jenson, Elliana and Grace; sister Bonnie Green of Madill; sister Kathy Sandefur of Madison, Wis.; brother Worley Wallace of Madill; brother David Wallace of Yukon; brother-in-law Orval Dunham of College Station, Texas; and numerous nephews, nieces, great-nephews, great-nieces, and friends.

Honorary bearers will be James Dunham, Dick Dunham, Jimmy Dunham, Tommy Redman, Bill Blackburn, and Dean Emerson.

Coffey-Murray Funeral Home, Durant.