MERCER, Melba M. (Schmidt)

Funeral for Melba Mae Mercer, 83, Norman, will be at 2 p.m. Friday at Post Oak Mennonite Brethren Church, Indiahoma. She died Monday, Oct. 5, 2009, in Norman. Burial will be in Post Oak Cemetery under direction of Whinery-Huddleston Funeral Service. She was born Aug. 1, 1926, in Corn to Theo and Minnie Klassen Schmidt. She was raised in the Corn and Gotebo communities. She graduated from Gotebo High School, where she attended Ebenezer Mennonite Brethren Church, and entered Oklahoma College for Women as an education major. Due to the shortage of teachers during the war, she was enlisted to teach in a one-room school west of Hobart before she received her degree. She married Clarence Mercer on May 27, 1947, in Vernon, Texas, and they made their home on a farm in the Cooperton community. She later returned to school and received her bachelors degree from Southwestern Oklahoma University. The family moved to Indiahoma in 1963, and she began teaching at Westwood Elementary in Lawton, where she taught until her retirement in 1990. She was a member of Post Oak Mennonite Brethren Church. Survivors include three sons and daughters-in-law: Lanny and Shelly Mercer, Mineral Wells, Texas; Randy and Marsha Mercer, Wynnewood; and Ted and Rosie Mercer, Anadarko; a daughter and son-in-law, Gayla and Paul Wiginton, Cache; grandchildren and their spouses: Ira and Shanna Mercer, Eli Mercer, Dawana and Tony Caldwell, David Mercer, Jeff Mercer, Billy Joe Wiginton, Raina and S.T. Lowell, Sunny Wiginton, Elijah Wiginton, Gabriel Wiginton, and Hannah Wiginton; a sister, Tonia Gail Overstreet; four great-grandchildren; many nieces and nephews; and close church family. She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband; brothers: Titus and Chester Schmidt; and a sister, Flora Bell Zacharias. The family will receive friends and family 6-8 p.m. today at the funeral home.