Opal LaVadi Vanoni

Opal LaVadi Vanoni passed away June 25, 2007 at the age of 97. She passed away in her sleep after having a stroke Friday June 22, 2007. Opal was born in Oliney, Oklahoma to Robert Merle Daniel and Ada Lee Haworth. She was the third of eleven children. Opal spent her childhood in the Quinten, Oklahoma area. She often spoke of the hardship of making several moves by covered wagon. She would talk of her and her siblings having frozen feet, starvation, snakebites and injuries. At the young age of sixteen she sent her younger siblings outside and she delivered her younger sister Freda. The family moved to California where Opal met and married Joe Mikel Vanoni on April 14, 1937 in Shafter, California. After the birth of their three children they moved to Amarillo, Texas. Later they moved back to Oklahoma to live in the Erin Springs area. Opal joined the Erin Springs Church, and then became a member of the Oakhurst Church after moving to the Dare area. She was the recording secretary for a number of years. Opal was a devoted Christian, loving wife and wonderful mother. Her children were her world. She was a homemaker and enjoyed quilting, needle crafts, gardening and her flowers. The neighbors often laughed and said they could smell her yard when driving by. Her many grandchildren and great grandchildren loved their Granny Vanoni. She had big Sunday dinners that we all loved. After the dinners everyone would walk to the creek so the grandchildren could watch the water splash as they threw rocks, of course with Granny Vanoni holding on to the back of their clothes. Opal will be loved and missed by all of nieces and nephews. I, Freddie Price, would like to thank first and foremost my husband Kenneth, who was dearly loved by Opal. They had a special relationship. Kenneth always called her Miss Opal. I would also like to thank my adopted brother, Wesley Arter for all the help and encouragement which enabled me to keep Mother in her home as long as I could, and the Grace Living Center in Oklahoma City for taking such good care of mother as well as Integris ER and the nurses of 9 East. Opal is preceded in death by her husband, Joe Mikel Vanoni, her daughter, LaVadi Jo Vanoni Castel and her daughter in law, Nora Beth Kuykendall. She is survived by her son, Lowell Mikel Vanoni and wife Sharon of Lindsay, Oklahoma, her daughter, Freddie Marie Vanoni Price and husband Kenneth of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, her son in law, Kenneth Castel, of Kent, Washington, dear friends and neighbors, Wesley and Janet Arter. Opal is also survived by her sisters, Lendal Bernice Barker, of Placerville, California, Lena May Howard of Porterville, California, Arvilla Irene Harris of Bakersfield, California and one brother, Harvey William Daniel of Shafter, California, and her grandchildren, James Michael Kuykendall and wife Sharon, Cynthia Marie Price Kitchens, Richard Todd Seip, Thomas Edward Seip, Aaron Riley Vanoni, Jason Robert Vanoni and wife Deon, Lt. Michael Chad Vanoni and wife Ericka, Cara Dawn Castel, Owen Scott Castel and wife Amy, Chesica Sean Anne Vanoni Wright and husband Jimmie. Opal was blessed with 16 great grand children. Services for Opal will be held on Thursday June 28, 2007 at B. G. Boydston Funeral Home Chapel at 2:00 p.m. Interment will follow at Green Hill Cemetery. Condolences may be sent to the family online at www.boydstonfuneralhome.com

Opal LaVadi Vanoni

May 27, 1910 - June 25, 2007

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