The funeral for Mrs. Ella Maye Blake- Faifer will be at 2 PM Saturday, October 10 at Mallett Funeral Home in Wagoner, with interment in Elmwood Cemetery. Pallbearers will be William P. Rogers, Arthur R. Rogers, Christopher Q. Rogers, James Murphy, Michael Blake, Blake Latimer, Frank Latimer and John Carnell. Ella Maye Blake was born January 19, 1917 in Eufaula, OK to Homer C. and Ella Maye (Kelly) Blake, after whom Blake Park at the Wagoner junction of Highways. 69 and 51 was named in 1955. Her parents had moved from Eufaula to Wagoner after Ella's marriage. She visited them frequently throughout their lives, and two of her children were born at her parents' home in Wagoner. By the time that Ella Maye graduated from Eufaula High School she was an accomplished pianist and the age of 18 married William Raymond Faifer, a music and band director. For the next 30 years she worked beside him, accompanying his music students in schools across the Central and Western parts of the country. She also instructed her own private students in piano, accordion and French horn. Ella's husband, Ray, died in 1965 when they were working in South Dakota. Following his death she moved with her youngest daughter, Melody, to Dunedin, Florida to be near family. She worked for Sun Trust Mortgage Company in Dunedin, and it was there several years later that she met Dwight Phillips. They were married in 1968, and he died unexpectedly twelve years later. She later moved with her daughter and son-in-law, Cliff Mann, to Denver, Colorado. It was in Denver at the age of 85 that she suffered a stroke which left her unable to speak or walk, although her mind remained alert for the rest of her life. She and her daughter, Melody then moved to Seattle, Washington where they joined a widowed daughter, Valencia Truman. At the time of her death on September 28, 2009 she was living in a Family Home Center in the Seattle area. Ella Maye loved music and continued to play the piano until the stroke. She was fond of people, and she was fond of animals. She was interested in gardening and quilt making and traveled throughout the world. She was greatly loved and admired for her energy, enthusiasm and generosity. Ella Maye Blake Faifer died Monday, September 28, 2009 in the Seattle, Washington area, having attained the age of 92 years, 8 months and 9 days. Survivors include her daughters, Charlotte Ann Rogers and her husband, William, of Muskogee, Valencia Kathryn Truman and Melody Sue Faifer, both of Kent, WA; four grandchildren, Deborah Ann Rogers, Arthur R. Rogers, Shawn R. Truman and Angela R. Truman; three great-grandchildren, Nathan Haas, Tanner Haas and Aden Haas; a number of other relatives and friends. She was preceded in death by her husbands, William Raymond Faifer and Dwight Phillips; her parents; two brothers, Homer C. Blake Jr. and Buddy Blake; a sister, Dorothy Murphy Jacobs and a lifelong friend, Helen Carnell.