- Date Of Birth: January 5, 1939
- Date Of Death: November 5, 2020
- State: Oklahoma
Mary Jane Hamilton
Mary was born on the Harper Ranch near Scullin, OK, on January 5, 1939, to Roy Franklin and Pearl Jane Harrison. She grew up in Edmond, Oklahoma, along with her younger brother, Roy J, on the ranch her father supervised. She graduated from Edmond High School with honors, having been a star debater for three years. After graduation, she attended Central State College, Edmond, OK, where she married her husband of 62 years, Lyle. Both having graduated from CSC, she attended Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, on scholarship to attain her first Masters degree. She and her husband taught speech at Northeast Missouri Teachers College, Kirksville, MO. (now Truman University) for three years before moving back to SIU for her husband’s PH.D studies. During the next few years she was co-owner in a Lake Texoma resort and pursued a second Masters degree, this time in Library Science at Texas Women’s University, Denton Texas, and graduated from the University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK. She was reference librarian at Ardmore Public Library until taking the position of Library Director with the Ardmore Higher Education Center. She developed the library system that functions to this day at the Southern Oklahoma University Center. She was awarded the honor of having that library named for her. She was appointed Assistant Director of the Center and then Director before retiring in 2005. She was a voracious reader, loved playing bridge with good friends, and being with her grandchildren.
She is survived by her husband, of the home, a daughter and son-in-law, Stephanie Lynne and Drew Concelman, somewhere aboard LaVita, her eldest son and his wife, Stephen and Ressa Hamilton, Lubbock, Texas, and their children, Jaxon and Raygen Hamilton, and their youngest and his wife, Walter and Ashley Hamilton, Tumwater, WA, and their children, Ryan and Grace Hamilton. She was preceded in death by her younger brother, Roy J. Harrison, her father Roy Franklin Harrison, and her mother, Pearl Jane Harrison.
