Sybil Smith

Sybil Smith, 97, of McCurtain, retired educator, died Tuesday, May 16, 2017, at Haskell County Community Hospital in Stigler. She was born May 2, 1920, in Kinta to Robert and Zuella (Kennedy) Cox; the youngest of nine children.
She grew up and finished the ninth grade in Kinta and moved with her family to Wilburton in 1935. After graduating from high school, she attended Eastern Oklahoma State College majoring in business. She took a Civil Service Examination and went to work as a clerk–typist for the Soil Conservation Service in Wilburton. In October 1941, she went to Washington, D.C. and worked in the Department of State.
She married Bill Smith, whom she had met in McAlester and courted for four years, Jan. 10, 1942. He worked for Capital Transit Company and she transferred to Chemical Warfare Service. In October 1942, Bill was inducted into the Armed Forces and she came back to Wilburton. As long as he was in the states, she went every place he was stationed. While he served 19 months in Foreign Service, she lived with her parents in Wilburton and worked in the Soil Conservation Service again. After his discharge from the Army, they went back to Washington, D.C. and lived until December 1947. They came back to Oklahoma and went back to college at Eastern State and Northeastern State University, where she received her bachelor and masters degrees. She taught one year in Latimer County and 29 years in Haskell County at Lequire, Rose Hill, Keota and her last 19 years at Kinta. She retired from teaching in 1980 and just enjoyed life with her husband of 57 years on their ranch east of Lequire until his death in 1999. Sybil will be remembered for her great interest in childhood education.
She is survived by a niece, Glenda Marcum of Hereford, Texas; three nephews, Bob Cox of Sequine, Texas, Ron Cox of Norman and Don Cox of California; and a host of friends.
Sybil is preceded in death by her parents, Robert and Zuella Cox and her husband, Bill Smith.
The service was held May 18 at the Kinta old school gymnasium with Virgil Cantrell officiating; eulogist, Mark Fenton; speaker, David Perryman. Burial followed at Sans Bois Cemetery, under the direction of King and Shearwood Funeral Home in Stigler.
Pallbearers were Roy Lynn King, Kenneth Kasiner, Chuck Roye, C.B. Coplen III, Todd Pugh, Duane Jeffery, Allen Burris, Dewayne Farriell. Honorary pallbearers were Wayne King, Johnny McMahan, David Cummings and Don Martin.