Memorial service for former Tipton resident, Verna D. Gray, age 91, of Altus, will be at 2:00 p.m., Saturday, April 22, 2017 at the Church of Christ in Tipton, Oklahoma. Mrs. Gray passed away on Thursday afternoon, April 20, 2017 at Tamarack Assisted Living in Altus.

Verna Deanne Oates Gray was born on January 27, 1926 in Groesbeck, Texas to Pliney Clifton and Cordelia (Cowart) Oates. She attended grade school in Groesbeck before her family moved to Seguin when she was ten. She graduated from Seguin High School in 1941. She attended Southwest Texas Teachers College in San Marcos and then attended and graduated from Nixon-Clay Business College in Austin. She was united in marriage to Billy Gerdes Gray on September 8, 1946 in Austin, Texas. Verna had worked as a secretary to the Adjutant General's Department in Austin, Texas. After moving to Tipton she worked as a secretary at the Tipton Home until her retirement in 1990. She had sung with the Sweet Adeline's for several years. In 2013, Billy and Verna were named the Tipton Chamber of Commerce Man and Woman of the Year. She was a faithful member of the Church of Christ in Tipton.

She is survived by her husband Billy of the home; two sons, Michael James Gray and his wife Mary of Clovis, New Mexico and Timothy Glen Gray and his wife Kathy of Tipton; one daughter, Deborah Sue Waugh and her husband James of Mustang, Oklahoma; grandchildren, Melanie Snodgrass, Josh Gray, Hannah Gray, Hailey Weaver, Mitchell Gray, Meggan Bickerstaff, Derek Waugh and Logan Waugh; great-grandchildren, Cotton, Hunter, Berkley and Triton Snodgrass, Jimmie Dodson, Lila, Noah, Audree, Mason, Samuel, Evelyn and Clint Bickerstaff, Micah and Brooklyn Gray, Kenya Sanchez, Fletcher and Emerson Waugh and Silas and Everly Weaver; and one great-great-granddaughter, Caroline Snodgrass.

She was preceded in death by her parents, two sisters, Ruby Elaine Putnam and Mildred Jeanne Chenault.