Obituary of Marjorie Elaine Wolf

Memorial Service Saturday, Feb 17, 2018 2:00 PM Marjorie Elaine Wolf February 16, 1928 - January 05, 2018 Marjorie Elaine (McGuire) Wolf was born February 16, 1928 in Kansas City, Missouri and passed away on January 5, 2018 at the age of 89. Her doting parents, Vick and Hazel McGuire settled in Snomac, a community in Seminole County, Oklahoma where her father pursued a career as a driller for Pure Oil Company. She attended Wolf community school until when, as she always said, “her parents moved into town” so she could attend Seminole High School for four years, graduating in 1946. Marjorie then moved to Norman to attend the University of Oklahoma, earning a BFA in Art in 1950. While attending OU she met Gale L. Wolf in an advanced dance class lesson. He was a great ballroom dancer and she loved to dance. They married at the Seminole Methodist Church on August 28, 1948. Upon graduation from OU in 1950 they moved to Houston, Texas where Gale pursued a career in Petroleum Engineering and Marjorie began teaching at Pugh Elementary School. Four years later, they moved to Cyril, Oklahoma, Gale’s hometown, where they lived together until his death in 1997. They were happily married 12 days shy of 49 years. Marjorie continued to reside in Cyril until she was unable to live alone and joined her daughters in the Houston area in 2014. Marjorie always had the heart of an artist and claimed to entertain herself as an only child by drawing. Throughout her life, she painted and sketched using various mediums, including oil, acrylic, charcoals, pastels, and watercolors. Her first works were still life and landscapes. She returned to OU in 1970 and earned her MFA in Art in 1972. At this time, modernistic idealism was enjoying a surge in popularity and Marjorie’s contemporary works reflected this. She participated in many exhibitions in Oklahoma and Texas including: the Annual Eight-State Exhibition at the Oklahoma Art Center; the Philbrook Biennial in Tulsa; the Annual Temple Emanuel Art Festival in Dallas; the Lawton Junior Service League Annual Juried Exhibit; and solo shows at the Museum of the Great Plains in Lawton. At a show in Dallas, her entry received the coveted “Purchase Award”, this honor resulted in the painting being auctioned at the end of the show. In 1978, Marjorie spent the summer in Italy studying and teaching art with the University of Georgia. She maintained a steadfast interest in traveling, visiting most states in the US and many different countries, including England, France, Canada, Mexico, Italy, Spain, Greece, Panama, Costa Rico, and Croatia. During a trip to London, Marjorie met John Spencer Churchill, the nephew of Winston Churchill. She painted a portrait of him and delivered it to him in London in 1985. Mrs. Wolf spent much of her life teaching others: she taught art in Apache school system, she taught several years at the Caddo-Kiowa Area Vocational-Technical Center, and at Cameron University in Lawton, in addition to teaching private lessons to many students. She employed many young people at Gasoline Alley, after she reopened the APCO gas station as the first self-serve station and convenience store in Cyril. One of her proudest moments in later years was giving the keynote address at Fort Sill’s Women’s Equality Day luncheon in 2009. She was always fiercely independent, never met a stranger, and worked hard for equality for women. She is survived by her two daughters and their families: Vickie and Mike Jackson (Shoreacres, TX), and Patricia and Sadegh Davari (Houston, TX); her three grandchildren; Vic Jackson and Leslie Ordonez, Shoreacres; Michelle and Chris Maddox and great grandson Elliott Maddox, Houston; and Rachael and Anthony Bellus, Austin. A Celebration of her Life will be held at the First Christian Church of Cyril, Ok on Saturday, February 17th at 2pm followed by a burial service at the Celestial Gardens Cemetery in Cyril with the Reverend Delbert McCurley officiating. Memorial donations may be directed to Cyril Schools Art Program, PO Box 449, Cyril, OK 73029 or Cyril Historical Society with the notation “Art Gallery”, PO Box 21, Cyril, OK 73029.