JOHNS, Oneice (Gayle)

Memorial service for Oneice Johns, 85, of Lawton, will be at 2 p.m., Sunday at Lawton Ritter Gray Funeral Home Chapel with Randy Nease officiating. Oneice Johns passed away on Sunday, March 06, 2011, in Lawton. She was born Grace Oneice Gayle, on Sept. 1, 1925, near Marlow, youngest child and only daughter of John Roscoe Gayle Sr. and Rosie Mae Owens Gayle. She attended school and graduated Valedictorian of the 1942 class at Central High School. She attended Cameron Junior College. During the years of WWII, she began her career as professional educator. At 17, she was granted an Emergency Teaching Certificate and taught school at Rock Creek School in Stephens County. She married Harry David Smith on Feb. 24 1945, in Duncan. Together they had five children: Jo Ann, Sharel Sue, Jessie May, Wade Lee and Hal David. That marriage ended in divorce in 1996. She returned to college and graduated from Oklahoma College for Women with a degree in Elementary Education in 1960. She later earned a masters degree in education from Southwestern State University. She taught elementary school at Central High Public School and with Lawton Public Schools. She retired in 1990, as a kindergarten teacher at Sullivan Village Elementary School. She also volunteered with Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA), the Visitors Center Wichita Wildlife Refuge and as an adult literacy teacher. She was a member of Daughters of the American Revolution, Lawton Chapter, and United States Daughters of 1812, Jacob White David Chapter. She married Clarence G. Johns, Aug. 27, 1998, and they lived in Lawton. Clarence died April 8, 2003. Oneice is survived by three children: Sharel Sue McAdoo and her husband, Dennis, of east Comanche County, Wade Lee Smith of Chicago, Ill., and Hal David Smith, of Elgin; grandchildren: Kimberly McAdoo Sholtis and her husband, Tadd, of Lorton, Va., Clayton Reed Smith and his wife, Taylor, of Kansas City, Kan., Lyndsey Jordan Smith, of Chicago, Ill., Kathryn Paige Smith, of Stillwater; great-grandchildren: Elizabeth Alden Sholtis and Michael Tyler Sholtis, both of Lorton; and brother, John Roscoe Gayle Jr., of Nevada City, Calif. She was preceded in death by two daughters: Jo Ann Smith and Jessie May Smith; grandson, Logan Warner Smith; her parents; and her second husband, Clarence Johns. Memorial Contributions may be made to Central High Public School for the Library Fund at Rt. 3 Box 249, Marlow, OK 73055.