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Mose E. Parris
FOUNTAIN HILLS, Ariz. -- A service of celebration was held for Mose E. Parris on Saturday, May 22, 2004, in Fountain Hills, Ariz. He was born Feb. 26, 1922, in Park Hill, and following a short illness, died Sunday, May 16, at the Life Care Center in Scottsdale, Ariz. He was 82.
A graveside committal service will be held in Oklahoma at a date to be determined.
Mose was a member of the Cherokee Nation. He served with the Oklahoma National Guard, Company C, 180th Infantry, 45th Division. During World War, II he served in the U.S. Navy in the South Pacific from 1942-'45.
Mose was a graduate of Chilocco Indian Boarding School (Hall of Fame, 1986), Bacone Indian Junior College in Muskogee, Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, and Oklahoma State University in Stillwater.
His professional career began with the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs as a teacher/coach at Pawnee Indian Boarding School. He worked on various Indian reservations at Indian boarding schools in the Southwest as a counselor and principal. In Utah, the Peripheral Dormitory Program required integrating Navajo students into the public school system, a project in which Mose was instrumental.
Mose was director of the USBIA Muskogee Area Office College Grants Program. His responsibilities included recruiting and approving Indian students for college entrance and follow-up assistance with funding, housing and counseling.
Transferring to the U.S. Department of Indian Health Services, Mose served the Phoenix, Ariz., area as tribal affairs officer. In 1967, he was transferred to IHS headquarters in Rockville, Md., as director of the Office of Tribal Affairs. His duties required traveling the lower 48 states and Alaska, working with all the Indian health facilities and tribal health councils. He serves as congressional liaison under the assistant surgeon general. He was very well-known in all the Indian communities across the country. He retired in Fountain Hill, Ariz., in 1980.
Mose is survived by his wife Dorothy of Fountain Hills, Ariz.; sons, Jeffrey Scott Parris and wife Kristen, and Alan "Buz" Parris and wife Emily and daughter Alane, all of Mesa, Ariz.; one sister, Fannie Duffield of Grove; many other relatives and a host of friends.
He was preceded in death by his oldest son, Michael, in July 2003; his parents, Joanna Nave Parris and Johnson Parris; five brothers; and two sisters.
The family requests in lieu of flowers donations and memorials be made to Native American Rights Fund, 1506 Broadway, Boulder, Colo., 80302; or the Smithsonian/National Museum of the American Indian, P.O. Box 23473, Washington, D.C., 20026-3473.
Ross Drywater
TAHLEQUAH -- Services for Ross Drywater will be held at 10 a.m., Wednesday, June 16, 2004, at Reed-Culver Chapel, with Alan Bowers and Ross Gourd as speakers. Burial will follow at noon in Fort Gibson National Cemetery, under the direction of the Reed-Culver Funeral Home of Tahlequah.
Pallbearers will include Andy Drywater, Vincent Drywater, James Gourd, Cole Hogner, Blake McLemore, Ron McLemore, Tim McLemore and William Wolf. Honorary pallbearers will be Key Gourd, Jackson Roastingear, Martin Roastingear, Graig Steeley, Larry M. Vance and Leroy Wolf.
Ross Allen Drywater was born on Nov. 5, 1932, in Double Springs, to Jess Drywater and Lucy (Grasshopper) Drywater. He passed from this life on Friday, June 11, 2004, in Tulsa, at the age of 71.
Ross worked 23 years as a cook for Sequoyah High School before retiring. He served his country during World War II in the United States Army.
Ross was preceded in death by his parents and a granddaughter, Julia Kay Drywater.
Survivors include his wife Christine (Quinton) Drywater of the home; four daughters, Novaline Steeley, Gloria Kochler, Dora Dunn and Kathryn Roastingear; six sons, Jackson Roastingear, Martin Roastingear, Arthur Roastingear, Jess Drywater, Wesley Drywater and August Drywater; two sisters, Ann Gourd and Nanita Dixie Wolf; 19 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
Reed-Culver Funeral Home, 117 W. Delaware, 456-2551.
Jo Bennett Dunham
OKLAHOMA CITY -- Jo Bennett Dunham, 69 of Eufaula Oklahoma died peacefully at her son Michael's home in Oklahoma City on June 12, 2004, ending her courageous lifelong battle with Crone's disease. Jo was born Nov. 23, 1934, in Barnsdall, to Roy O. Bennett and Thelma Owens Bennett. She attended school in Barnsdall, where she showed early skills in drawing and painting. Jo and her sisters, known in the community as the three musketeers, were taught to appreciate life and spent many hours exploring the woods and swimming in Bird Creek. Their father, Roy, had a distinctive whistle that he used to call them home that Jo heard on her last day; her father calling her home to join him in heaven.
Jo went on to earn a master's degree in education with a minor in art from Northeastern State University, where she met and later married J.T. Dunham, her husband of 49 years.
Painting and educating students on art and the arts were two of Jo's passions. She taught at Straight School, Guymon Public Schools, and finally at Panhandle State University leaving a legacy of enriched lives of many students. She designed the college seal used by Panhandle State University.
Jo was a founding member of Artists' Studio Northwest, Entre Nous and Beta Sigma Phi social sororities and was named Woman of the Year by Beta Sigma Phi. She received the Oklahoma Governor's Arts Award from Governor Henry Bellmon in 1990.
Jo was an accomplished artist and her paintings live on in many homes throughout Oklahoma and the nation. She drew and painted in many different media and many different styles, and was comfortable and proficient in them all. She attended and conducted numerous workshops through the years, collected a significant art library and in later years after retiring from the university, painted family portraits, most often using watercolor media. Her favorite subject during these years was her precious grandson, Drew Dunham.
Though slight in stature, she had a giant heart and a giant wit and sense of humor and was the wind under many people's wings, particularly her husband, J.T. Jo was always an "independent woman" - way before that was anything that many women wanted to be. She never intentionally said anything to hurt anyone's feelings, but she was outspoken and opinionated and usually "right-on." If you didn't like her or what she had to say, that was okayŠ just don't participate. She was one of a kind. Never a complaint when she lived daily with health conditions the rest of us could never have endured. She was too busy living, doing and being; no time for pity for wondering "why me?"
Jo is survived by her husband, J.T. Dunham of Eufaula, and her son, Michael Dunham of Oklahoma City; along with Michael's wife, Susan, and their son, Drew. She is also survived by her mother, Thelma Owens Bennett of Barnsdall; and two sisters, Pat Kuzilik and husband Jim and their four children Roy Alan, Claudia, Sonia and Jimmy, and Mavis Elks and husband Ray, and Mavis' children Bruce, Carolyn and Keith; as well as by many cousins and great nieces and nephews. Her cousin Barbara Pearman, of Oklahoma City, Barbara's husband Bill and her children Cathy, Rink, Steve and Chris, also survive Jo.
A memorial service was held at 11 a.m., Tuesday, June 15, 2004, at the Chapel of St. Mary's at All Souls Episcopal Church, 6400 N. Pennsylvania Ave., in Oklahoma City. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorial donations be made to the donor's preferred charity or to The Panhandle State University Art Scholarship Fund, Panhandle State University, P.O. Box 430, Goodwell, Okla., 73939; or the No. 9 Community Center Supporters, Eufaula, Okla., 74432.
Florian Marie Griggs
Florian Marie McKee Griggs, age 60, wife of Ford Griggs and a registered nurse, died Thursday morning, June 10, 2004, at Jane Phillips Medical Center.
An Indian Wake Service will be conducted at 7 p.m. Sunday in the Neekamp-Luginbuel Colonial Chapel. Services will be held 10 a.m. Monday in the sanctuary of the First United Methodist Church with Rev. Terry Adams and Dr. Paul Bowles officiating. Burial will be on the family plot of the Pawhuska City Cemetery under the direction of the Neekamp-Luginbuel Funeral Home.
A memorial has been established in Mrs. Griggs name with the BIWC (Bartlesville Indian Women Club) for the Roberta Sanders Scholarship Fund. Those wishing to remember her may do so in care of Bartlesville Indian Women's Club, P. O. Box 101, Bartlesville, Okla. 74005.
Florian was born on Feb. 11, 1944 in Pawhuska, Okla. She was the daughter of Florian Meigs and Bessie (Alsbury) McKee. She graduated from Pawhuska High School with the Class of 1962, and received her Associate Degree from Amarillo College, RN School of Nursing. She completed her education with a Bachelor of Science Degree from Northeastern State University in Tahlequah. Both her parents were Cherokee and her father, grandparents, and great-grandparents were original enrollees of the Dawes Commission Rolls. Florian's ancestry includes many prominent citizens of the Eastern and Western Cherokee Nations. She is a direct line descendent great-granddaughter of John Ross, Cherokee Chief, who led the Cherokees over the "Trail of Tears" to Oklahoma. When she was a small child, her paternal grandmother gave her the Cherokee name of "Kanuche." She was involved in Native American activities on the local, state, and national levels. She was past state president of Oklahoma Federation of Indian Women, member of Miss Indian Oklahoma and Junior Miss Indian Oklahoma Pageant Committees and Chairwoman of Indian Summer Princess Committee. She was Advisor Operation Eagle, Indian Education, of Bartlesville School System. Past Director of Indian Elderhostel, she lectured on Cherokee culture, heritage, and history to area schools, scouts, and for organizations across the U.S.
Florian was a 22-year member of Bartlesville Indian Women's Club, past officer, current advisor and narrator for their Traditional Dress Style Shows. She co-produced and narrated their video, "Elegant Visions," on Native American women's clothes, which has U.S. distribution and is featured in other Native American videos by Full Circle Communications.
Florian has served as Head Lady Dancer for Intertribal Powwows in Oklahoma and several other states. She worked for better health care and civil rights for all Native Americans and the promotion of Native American Women. Florian was past state president and national officer of American War Mothers, a national organization of women who have had children in the U.S. Military. She was past president and a member of the local Grayhorse Chapter # 15, Fairfax, Okla.
She has served on the Board of Directors for Washington County CASA, Bartlesville; Osage Country Head Start, Pawhuska and Osage Nation Tribal Museum, Pawhuska. She has served as advisor for the Boy Scouts Venturing groups. She was currently a member and officer of the nation board of the American Indian Scouting Association.
She curated Native American exhibits for Bartlesville History Museum, Price Tower Museum, Frank Phillips Home, Bartlesville Public Library, and the Community Center. An avid craftsperson, Florian designed and made traditional and contemporary Native American clothing for her family.
In 1996, Florian was adopted by a Delaware woman, Leona Shipley, of Bartlesville and taken as her daughter. She was dressed and given the right to wear Delaware clothes. In Delaware Naming Ceremony, she was named "We Chum Moo Quah," which means helping woman.
In 1998, she received the local award from the Bartlesville Allied Arts & Humanities Council for advancement of the arts and humanities. She was awarded for attaining recognition and acclaim in the field of fine arts for Native American Culture. She was considered for her dedication, depth of involvement, uniqueness of her contribution and the impact of her contribution toward others.
She volunteered at the Green Country Free Clinic, American Red Cross, and their Bloodmobile & Disaster Unit. She served as camp nurse for the Cherokee Area Council of Boy Scouts of America. She was a member of Oklahoma Society Professional Engineers Auxiliary, N.E.S.U. Lifetime Member and American Indian Alumni Association, National Congress American Indians, Oklahoma Historical Society, Osage County Historical Society and numerous genealogical societies.
Florian is survived by her husband, Ford Griggs of Bartlesville; daughters, Dana Milligan-Espinal and husband Sergio of Tahlequah, Heather Griggs of Edinborrogh, Scotland, and Jennifer Griggs-Pool and husband Matt of College Station, Texas; sons, Michael Milligan of Dallas, Texas, and Brett Milligan and wife April of Tulsa; sisters, Marilyn Atterberry and husband John of Bartlesville and Ahnawake McCauley of Barnsdall; grandchildren, Brandon and Crystal Espinal of Tahlequah, Aaron and Daren Milligan of Bartlesville, Jimi Stafford, Megan and Kara Rainey of Tulsa; adopted mother, Leona Shipley of Bartlesville; adopted sister, JoAnn Markley of Bartlesville; nephews, Tommy Hendren and his son Toby Hendren of Tuttle, Okla., and Luke and Noah Milligan of Edmond. Her first husband, Daymon Milligan, a son, William Berlin Milligan and her parents preceded her in death.
Neekamp-Luginbuel Funeral Home, Bartlesville, Oklahoma.
