Wynoka McClung

Wynoka McClung was born to Granville and Jewell (Roberts) Gourd on Monday, February 15, 1937 in Inola, Oklahoma. She died on Friday, May 22, 2020 in Tulsa, Oklahoma at the age of 83. Wynoka grew up the oldest of two daughters and lived nearly her entire life in Oklahoma. She lived with her parents and one sister in Inola and Claremore before settling in Miami where she graduated from high school. In her youth, she was very close with her grandfather, Taylor Rattlinggourd, whom she remembered as the “gentlest man that ever lived.” She spoke of helping him dig garlic in the field beside his house and of how he made her and her sister wear “smelly” medicine bags to school. After losing her father when she was only fifteen, she fell in love and married her high school sweetheart, Terril Middleton, and supported him while he finished college. After giving birth to two sons, Michael and Scott, the family settled in Broken Arrow where Wynoka lived out the rest of her life. In those early years, Wynoka enjoyed competitive archery and skeet shooting. At archery tournaments it was often noted that Wynoka always seemed to place one position higher in the women’s category than did her husband in the men’s. That may have contributed to the couple’s decision to part ways after seventeen years. As a single parent and a single woman in the 1970’s, Wynoka found her wings and became a very independent person. She first put herself through school to attain her LPN nursing certificate and then later to complete her degree and become a registered nurse, all while raising two rebellious teen boys. She was rightfully very proud of these achievements and of the way she navigated single life for the next twenty-plus years. More than one of her granddaughters gladly admits to her being a role model. Throughout these single years, she maintained an on-again-off-again relationship with her best friend, Ed McClung. Ed had fallen in love with Wynoka years before when they met on the archery range but, as they were both married at the time, they built a relationship of friendship. Later, when they each went through divorce, they leaned on each other for support and their relationship grew. Sometimes they dated. Then they didn’t. Then they did. Wynoka was determined to retain her independence while Ed wanted only to marry her and become part of her family. Ed never gave up and, twenty-some years later, they wed in Eureka Springs, AR. Sadly, they were not given the chance to enjoy this romance-novel marriage for long, as Ed lost his battle to cancer just two years later. Although Wynoka had been forced to retire early due to debilitating heart disease, her retirement years were perhaps the busiest, most rewarding, and certainly most heart-breaking of her life. With her nursing skills, she took on the role of primary home care provider for Ed during his battle with cancer, and then for her mom as she eventually succumbed to Alzheimer’s. She had always been very close with her step-father, Herb Teeples, but the two of them became inseparable after her mother died. As Herb shuffled into his nineties, Wynoka provided him home care for the rest of his life as well. Thus, instead of resting and enjoying her golden years, she provided comfort and support to her loved ones and ignored the additional strains it put on her frail heart. Throughout her life, Wynoka enjoyed taking long road trips through national parks. With Ed at the wheel, they drove for weeks just enjoying each other’s company and dawdling at roadside attractions and cafes. They always tried to plan their route so that it took them through the distant communities where one of the kids lived. Sometimes Grandma and Grandpa traveled with them and it became a raucous band of grey-headed vagabonds. They had great fun together on these trips. Wynoka’s most memorable trip, however, was in 2005 when her two sons left their families at home and just the three of them took a road trip through Yosemite, Sequoyah and King’s Canyon in northern California. For a whole week, they made sandwiches out of a cooler, slept together in a cramped cabin and, after running out of food because they stayed out an extra day, got nauseated together from eating cold cream of mushroom soup out of a can and washing it down with warm beer. Michael and Scott remember this trip with their mother as one of the best times of their lives. Everyone who knew Wynoka knew she could be infuriatingly set in her ways and often so much so that even a keg of dynamite would not have gotten her to budge. Her family most-often humored her in this and, because there really wasn’t any other choice, acceded to her wishes. Only after things were done to her very precise instructions would the family tease her about how little difference it actually made. Wynoka also never scheduled an appointment time that she intended to make. Somehow, in her mind, the time of the appointment meant that was the time she was supposed to be ready to leave the house. Her gentle stubbornness and perpetual lateness were so much a part of who she was that her family loved her for these things rather than in spite of them. Wynoka was fiercely protective of her family and gave her love without condition. She lived her life willingly sacrificing her own needs at every opportunity to help a loved one. As her family grew to include daughters and sons-in-law, grandkids and their spouses, and eventually great-grandkids, with her slight stature she became like a tiny, regal little matriarch whom the whole family adored. She will be dearly missed. Wynoka is survived by Her Son, Scott Middleton and Julianne of Broken Arrow Daughter-in-Law, Monique Middleton of Temecula, California Grandchildren, Shelly Anne Johnson of Broken Arrow April Kauffman and Kip of Topeka, Kansas Brent E. Middleton and Krystal of Sapulpa Wynoka Middleton McClellan and Deric of Tulsa Travis S. Middleton of Broken Arrow Taylor S. Middleton and Molly of Denver, Colorado Trenton E. Middleton and Terre of Beaumont, California Great-Grandchildren, Khloe, Keagan, Brynlee, Beckett, Amanda, Andrew and Catherine Great-Great-Grandchildren Madilynn, Lynn and Malcolm Sister, Barbara Ann Maxwell and Wilbur of Broken Arrow Wynoka was preceded in death by her parents, Granville and Jewell; her step-father, Herb Teeples; her husband, Edward McClung; and her son, Michael E. Middleton. Private family services will be held at a later time

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Wynoka McClung

February 15, 1937 - May 22, 2020